Healthcare in Liberia: #Kony2012, meet #Todee2012

March 09, 2012 | Pulitzer Center

By Jina Moore with images by Jake Naughton, for the Pulitzer Center, Liberia

Garmai Blackie, 40, has been a midwife for nearly a decade, all of that time unpaid. Image by Jake Naughton. Liberia, 2012.

The Presbyterian Todee Clinic serves nearly 10,000 people. Image by Jake Naughton. Liberia, 2012.

The records room. The clinic is just an hour outside of Monrovia, but has no electricity or running water. Image by Jake Naughton. Liberia, 2012.

A midwife sits on a bench near the open door to the maternity room. Liberia has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world, and village midwives like this woman are often an expecting mother's only resource. Image by Jake Naughton. Liberia, 2012.

Annie Gobah, a midwife, leans on the exam table in the maternity room at the Todee clinic. Image by Jake Naughton. Liberia, 2012.

The clinic does not have the facilites to deal with complications during birth, so women are encouraged to receive prenatal care to circumvent potential emergencies. Image by Jake Naughton. Liberia, 2012.

John Flomo, the officer in charge of the clinic, administers a malaria test. Malaria is of particular concern to pregnant mothers, as it can lead to stillbirth or serious health complications for the baby. Image by Jake Naughton. Liberia, 2012.

A clinic volunteer sits in the room where vaccines are kept. Because there is no electricity, staff keep vaccines in a cooler. Image by Jake Naughton. Liberia, 2012.

The clinic's supply room. Reliability is improving, but supplies still often run low. Image by Jake Naughton. Liberia, 2012.

While everyone was looking at Joseph Kony, Invisible Children and their #Kony2012 campaign, the Pulitzer Center collaborative reporting team was out in rural Liberia, meeting traditional midwives and touring a health clinic.

Journalist Mae Azango led our pack to Todee, a rural district three hours from Monrovia. We interviewed seven women who work at the local health clinic as midwives, trying to understand the challenges they face. Then we visited the clinic, and we had a new appreciation for what they told us.

The maternity room has two beds and one exam table, with wooden stirrups. The hospital has no electricity and no water. The staff aren't paid, as everyone kept telling us, and even the director isn't on salary. He's paid a token thank-you from the government, with no guarantee of this non-job job the next day. He's been running the clinic since 1998, he says.

If women face complications in childbirth, there's nothing anyone here can do. They need to send the woman to a hospital. But there's no ambulance. The solution? Get her there the same way you got her to the hospital from her village, an hour or more away: put her in a hammock and find four strong guys to haul her there.

If the Internet can muster so much attention for one viral video, how about a little something for Todee?