Last Sunday we visited Penyem, the home village of Ebrima Nyassi, the senior biomedical engineering technologist at the MRC. The village is about 35km from the MRC where I'm staying. We first took a 'bush taxi' (basically a 12-seater van) to the town of Brikama for the very reasonable price of D15 (less than $1). There Ebrima found us a personal taxi to take us the rest of the way.
We visited the newly built birthing house in the village. It provides a safe clean place for mothers to give birth without having to travel to a health centre. However, if the midwife or traditional birth attendant foresees that there may be complications, then they will attempt to make arrangements to take the mother to the nearest health centre, or refer her to a hospital.
The birth attendant
We were fortunate enough to meet the family of the latest addition to the Penyem community who was born at the birthing house only a couple of weeks before our visit!
For many more details about the birthing house, visit the blog that my friend Shauna has been writing since it's very early days -
Penyem Birthing House. She was instrumental in raising the funds and organizing its construction earlier this year!
Some more shots around the village...
This is Nyassi's adorable niece!
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