A young woman came to give birth to a baby of 1.700 kg at 32 weeks of pregnancy. Our electricity generator was being repaired and the neonatology department was temporarily closed. Power cuts are extremely frequent; there can be several ones at ten-minute intervals, which finally damages the facilities…

The mother was offered a transfer to another hospital. The family members who were habitually present, including the child’s father, then disappeared, leaving the mother and child in our care.

Since 16 August, traditional means (hot water bottles – actually hot water in mineral water bottles) had kept the baby alive, and it was developing well. We fed the mother so that she could feed her child, hoping that the father would show up again, but the mother disappeared in her turn, leaving the baby in hospital. The grandmother arrived suddenly on 8 September, took the child and left a small amount of money. Our staff was pleased with what they considered a favourable outcome to this story.

On 19 July 2021, a woman was transferred from Cité Verte Hospital to our facility at 28 weeks of amenorrhoea. She gave birth to a premature baby that we entrusted to the neonatology department and the mother came to feed it daily. Despite the care and attention of our staff, the baby died on the evening of 7 August.

The next morning, after mourning the death of her baby, the woman told the staff that she would not carry away the body of her child alone and that she was going to fetch its father. The little body was placed in the funeral home until the expected arrival of the parents, but by 7pm no one had arrived despite the telephone commitments made during the day.

The police were called at 8 pm, they came at 11pm and authorised the body to be placed in the mortuary.

The mother reappeared two days later in order to recover the baby’s belongings and was certain that the father had recovered and buried his child… This was obviously not the case and the mother ended up taking the little corpse with her.

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These are two examples of “stories” born out of human misery, which end in the despair of daily life, if not in immediate death.
Nevertheless, like flowers which appear in the unexpected cracks of a cemented path, chance encounters may help to build a different world.
Let us open our hearts and arms!