Every month around 30 women with high-risk pregnancies, many from remote or isolated villages, come to give birth in at the Walikale general reference hospital.
Set up by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in 2018, approximately 90 miles east of Goma in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the “village d’accueil,” or “host village,” is a place inside the hospital that offers specialized care and temporary housing for women during the period leading up to and following childbirth. The goal is to reduce maternal and child mortality.
"Here, women are not only medically monitored, but also given shelter, food, and access to clean water and showers," explained Séraphin Kikwabantu, the head of the hospital's gynecology-maternity department.
Lack of access to sexual and reproductive health care
Accessing sexual and reproductive health services in DRC is exceptionally difficult for women and girls. Even before the recent increase in violence, the country's health care infrastructure was fragile with insufficient funding and a lack of resources. Combined with the unaffordable costs of health care and difficult geographical access, DRC has some of the highest rates of maternal and neonatal deaths in the world.
For pregnant women in remote villages within Walikale territory, long distances pose a barrier to accessing prenatal care and health facilities, discouraging the early seeking of care. As a result, many women, particularly those with high-risk or complicated pregnancies, die en route to the hospital, or just as they finally reach it—something MSF is aiming to prevent with the host village.
High-risk pregnancies
Local health centers refer women to the host village after diagnosing a high-risk pregnancy. Other women with histories of high-risk births, health conditions, or previous Cesarean sections are also advised to go.
Head of Walikale hospital's gynecology-maternity department
Séraphin Kikwabantu
This initiative helps us to save women's lives. For most women, there are no nearby health care centers, and even if they do manage to reach one, often the high cost of care and medications makes it completely unaffordable for them. By having the women stay at the host village in advance of their expected due date, we can decrease complications, mitigating the risk of death for mother and baby.
MSF medical teams provide prenatal consultations for all women as soon as they arrive at the host village, and check for and provide necessary treatment for diseases that can be harmful for the babies, such as syphilis and malaria.
In addition to medical care, pregnant women can benefit from mental health sessions at MSF’s Tumaini clinic, which takes its name from the Swahili word for “hope,” located within the hospital. Contraception counseling is also available, allowing women to choose between short- and long-term contraceptives.
MSF’s work in Walikale territory
The host village has hosted and cared for around 1,800 women since it opened five years ago. More than 440 babies are born every month in the maternity unit of Walikale general reference hospital, where MSF teams work in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health, and in 2023, a total of 5,070 deliveries were carried out in MSF-supported facilities in Walikale territory.
MSF supports several services at the general reference hospital of Walikale in partnership with the Ministry of Health, including maternal, neonatal, and pediatric care, as well general health care at 10 health care centers. MSF also provides mental health care for victims of sexual and gender-based violence in Tumaini clinic.
