Mandera, the most dangerous place in the world to give birth

For: Maria Ferreira (text and photos)
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Mandera, almost as large as Belgium desert territory, home to thousands of people struggling to bring up their cattle in the eternal struggle against drought. Mandera, origin of the oral tradition, the edges, the poems, legends nomadic life brings. territory Kenya which borders Somalia and Ethiopia. forgotten land. And the most dangerous place in the world to give birth.

Sameera you have 16 years. He born in Mogadishu, Somalia. But, He remembers nothing of his life there. His parents undertook the trip to Mandera to escape the war when she was just one year. It has grown in Kenya, He completed his primary education in a small village near Takaba, but could not continue studying: his father died and she had to marry when she turned 14 years.

-How do you do your husband? I ask.

-He went to Europe shortly after the wedding 'says the girl still do not know anything about him, Maybe it has not yet come, because Europe is far away and he and other men were walking.

Female genital mutilation is illegal in Kenya since 2011. But, this prohibition has not ended practice

Thousands of young Eritreans and Somalis undertake every year the perilous journey across the desert, paying mafias who promise to take them to Italy. They do leave behind their lives and their names. For their families it is virtually impossible to locate them or get mission any information about his whereabouts.

Sameera, however, She is convinced that her husband is alive.

-Has traveled since I was very small guiding the camels of his father know she explains walking.

Life in the village this year has not been easy. The drought in South Sudan, northern Kenya and Somalia has caused the death of 60% livestock. Addition, the presence of the terrorist group Al-Shabaab has increased in recent months and attacks on the roads mines have already killed dozens of people.

The drought in South Sudan, northern Kenya and Somalia has caused the death of 60% livestock

Sameera works with her mother and her grandmother "healing women". deliver babies, alleviate women's health-related pain and perform ablations, practice by passing one 98% Somali women and whose type, infibulation, It is the most aggressive of all. Female genital mutilation is illegal in Kenya since 2011. But, this prohibition has not ended practice, but he has hidden and has made profitable eyes of corruption.

Populations Fund of the United Nations (UNFPA) on the ground with a campaign struggling to reduce maternal mortality in Mandera, not only providing the area with qualified health centers, but also with awareness campaigns that develop hand in hand with local NGOs to empower young people and facilitate their access to educational programs. Several NGOs provide an opportunity for women who practice female genital mutilation to be trained as midwives and use their knowledge to save lives.

"They mutilated me in a purification celebration in which everyone was happy and I did not understand anything at all", recalls Sameera

Sameera started to attend one of these programs hidden from his family. His mother said he went every evening to knit.

-In a way I have not lied she says laughing. Meat also is woven if broken.

In this program they learn to treat complicated deliveries and understand how mutilation affects sexual and reproductive health of women. They learn that the pain does not have to be part of the traditions and teach them to explain to patients why they should not maul her daughters.

-Now I understand that every moment of my life has been marked by pain 'I account. I was mutilated in a celebration of purification, where everyone was happy and I did not understand anything, nothing at all. Infibulation that our culture is practiced mutilation of the clitoris and the labia majora sealed leaving only a small opening for urine out, So the wedding night you have to open with a knife that sexual relations are possible. I have not had children, but we learn how mutilation makes childbirth is risky. For the first time in my life I am learning what to do with all this, easing, how to cure, and that makes me very happy.

In Mandera occur 3.795 deaths per 100.000 live births

Female genital mutilation is not the only factor that makes Mandera in the most dangerous place in the world to give birth, with a frightening statistic 3.795 deaths per 100.000 live births according to UNFPA. "Women are ten times more likely to die in Afghanistan in Mandera", asegura Siddharth Chatterjee, UNFPA spokesman in Kenya.

To make matters worse, the presence of the terrorist group Al-Shabaab converts 1.000 km by road from Nairobi separating Mandera, the capital, an unthinkable journey. The lack of blood banks in hospitals, the reluctance of physicians who refuse to work under the conditions in which Mandera is and the constant absence of water and electricity explain, also, This high mortality rate.

"Someday maybe I will be able to convince my mother that there is nothing positive about mutilation"

But, there is a group of young people started to rebel and fight for your right to know, as Sameera. And in education and curiosity is the change. The temptation of well, of knowledge, of right, It can be as powerful as evil, although it lacks popularity. Perhaps peace consists of proposals and not on orders, to teach the variety of ways rather than make a single truth. Perhaps the problem is that we understand peace as the absence of violence, and that vacuum is not active, It is not powerful, causes no change. Peace has to be arrasadora, You have to communicate as much or more violence. It has to be more profitable.

-Someday perhaps convince my mother know that mutilation has nothing positive declares. She'll tell other women and so, little by little, there will be more and more girls will not go for it.

And change is transmitted in this part of the world that no one knows. Mandera only in the news for their dead. Let us not forget their living, who they are brave and are making way.

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