We meet the director, Dr. Iara. I have become very good  by now and people love being interviewed over here …

She is young, beautiful, newly graduated. By a law of Mozambique,  graduates in medicine must serve an apprenticeship in a rural health center to learn the ropes, in short. She tells us that 66% of the childbirths in the district already takes place in the hospital and it is a good result, there are problems of poor communication among the communities, between Palma and the more remote villages, courses are needed on how to handle infants, how to prevent child deaths , constructive relationships (she uses these very words!) with the curanderos are needed, relationships that take into account the traditions and the  religions, they should be taught how to direct the  patients  towards the most appropriate treatments. Instead of this, they often give a quick treatment  hoping for immediate results but it rarely works.

I ask her what she thinks of the Mamma kit and she replies that it is a very important initiative which is having success considering that it only started  a bit more than a month ago.

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La Casa de Espera. This facility, inside the Health Centre of Palma, is designed to accommodate women of the villages in the last period of pregnancy, giving them food, lodging and all the necessary medical care. It is not yet in use, a doctor from Doctors with Africa Cuamm tells us they want to make it the most appealing possible but it will be difficult to convince the women from the  villages to abandon their families to stay here.

It is another of the challenges the doctors with Africa Cuamm and Eni Foundation are facing in Mozambique.

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It’s night, I have to pack my bags, the long return journey begins.