Meet Fatou Joof, a Midwife at the Serrekunda Health Center, a facility located in the largest urban center in The Gambia, about 12 kilometres from The Gambian capital city, Banjul. The facility records over a 100 deliveries each month and is largely accessed.
Fatou has been a midwife for 15 years during which she has dedicated her valuable time to assisting women through their pregnancy journeys and safe delivery.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and cases being recorded in The Gambia, Fatou just like most of her colleague midwives, continues to attend to pregnant women and new mothers on a daily basis.
"When the women come to the facility, we make sure they wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water. We also make hand sanitisers available for use."
Driven by her passion for life saving work, Fatou commits to continue the work she does because even as COVID-19 has put a lot of aspects of life on hold in The Gambia, pregnancies are not on hold.
"The work I do here brings me so much joy. This is who we are as midwives and this is what we do - we save lives."
The continuity of essential sexual and reproductive health services including antenatal and post-natal services, is vital in ensuring pregnant and breastfeeding women and their babies are healthy and safe.
UNFPA continues to work with the government of The Gambia through the Ministry of Health to ensure that pregnant women and lactating mothers are adequately catered for and have access to maternal lifesaving services that will yield positive pregnancy and motherhood experiences during this pandemic and beyond.
Media contact:
Haddy Jonga - Programme Analyst - Communications, UNFPA The Gambia jonga@unfpa.org
Isatou Jallow - Communications Associate, UNFPA The Gambia ijallow@unfpa.org
