Accoucheuses nomades, racines du désert
Dominique Thibaut, Nicolas Meulders
2007 - 52 min - DV Cam - Couleur - France

The region of Adrar-N-Ifoghas in Northern Mali holds the highest level of Child and mother mortality in the world. Traditionally, Tuareg women give birth, knelled down, on the sand. Overcoming this situation without failing is a question of Honour: it is an act of bravery increasing their social status within the society. But the sanitary conditions of their delivery are often appalling and numerous newborn babies die of tetanus few days after. The Malian government, with Doctors of the World, aims at reinforced the sanitary development of the region. The NGO has identified 230 traditional “midwives” within the nomadic camps. These women carry out most of the deliveries in the bush and yet most of them cannot either write or read and do not know modern medicine. Doctors of the World trained and taught them basic lessons in order to achieve clean delivery and detect signs of danger during a pregnancy. The NGO wants her to become the bedrock in term of mother and infant healthcare in Tuareg Country. A way of combining nomadism and development.