Insider Story: We still lose babies

Above: Watch my walk-through in Bongnaayili, Ghana — where help is far away.
 

I wish I could tell you this is rare.

That what you see here only happens once in a long while.
But the truth is simple and painful:

We still lose babies. We still lose pregnant women. We still lose women when they are delivering.

That is the reality in Bongnaayili — a community where distance decides who lives, and who doesn’t.

Here, I see my own childhood

My name is Samuel. I'm the program officer in charge of sponsorship and child protection with Children Believe, and I'm currently in Bongnaayili in the Northern Region of Ghana.

Around me, women crouch over metal pans, roasting shea nuts — the first step in making the butter they sell in the market to buy things their children need.

Bongnaayili is made up of farmers and petty traders.

The men and the boys grow maize, rice, millet, yam and nuts. The women trade — some sell food, others extract oil from shea nuts and groundnuts. Young girls learn hairdressing, soap-making, and dressmaking. Young boys learn carpentry and masonry.

Life here is not easy. It wasn’t easy for me either.

Growing up as a child in a community like Bongnaayili, there were times I had to walk barefooted to school — getting blisters on my feet. There were times I had to go to school hungry. There were times I had to go to school without writing materials.

Above: Samuel (far left) walking with classmates during his school years in Northern Ghana. Growing up, he often went to school barefoot or without supplies — the same struggles many children in Bongnaayili still face today.

My parents were doing all their best for me. It's not that they didn't want to provide, they simply couldn’t afford the basics.

And I made a promise that I didn’t want to grow up and have my children face the same challenges I faced.

The biggest danger here is distance

In communities like Bongnaayili, the biggest threat to a child is distance.

The major challenge is that a lot of communities are clustered together and provided with just one health facility. Three or four communities will be put together, and the facility will be located in only one. The other communities have to travel to that particular location.

The least you can travel is around three kilometers. Some can travel up to ten kilometers to access health care.

And even when they arrive, help is not always available. Sometimes you get to the facility and basic necessities like medicines, drugs are not even there.

For mothers, babies and children, this is especially dangerous — because when they fall ill, even a short delay can become life-threatening.

When labour starts at night, help is far away

When darkness falls, things get worse.

When a person is sick in the night, it's always a very big challenge. Transportation is difficult. They don't have an ambulance that can easily take them to the nearest health facility.

Sometimes we lose some of these people who get sick — especially children.

For pregnant women, night is the most dangerous time of all.

If a woman goes into labour in the middle of the night, it means she has to deliver at home. Sometimes they need a C-section.

Traditional birth attendants try, but they don't have that capacity — the unborn baby's life is in danger. The pregnant woman's life is in danger.

And after birth, the dangers continue. If the child is underweight at home, there's no professional to support them or teach them how to properly feed their babies. When the woman is anemic, they don't have the professional to show them a medicine that can help or a type of food that can boost their blood levels.

Even vaccines come only when they are remembered by the Ghana Health Service.

Amina’s fear for her younger sister

Earlier today, I met a girl named Amina who shared her sad story with me. Her younger sister fell sick and they didn't know what to do.

Their family had no transport. No one to call. No ambulance to come. They had to take the girl on a bicycle to the nearest health facility, which is about four kilometers away.

Amina told me she was afraid she could lose her younger sibling because that sister was crying in pain and her temperature was very high.

When they reached the clinic, they were lucky. They were able to receive some medications and their sister got well.

As Amina spoke, I was emotional. I could relate to what she and her family went through.

No child should have to fear losing a sibling like that.

No family should have to go through this.

 

What we’re doing — and why it matters

Above: Dasuyili, Northern Ghana — Donor support helps midwives reach families by motorbike for home visits. But in Bongnaayili, families must still walk long distances on foot to reach the nearest health clinic.

In northern Ghana, we’re supporting remote communities — working with Ghana Health Service to bring care closer to families.

Because of donor support, Children Believe is able to:

• support nurses who travel weekly
• provide fuel so outreach can happen
• supply medicines to the clinics
• train teachers and community volunteers in first aid

We support the nurses with fuel and other incentives to be able to bring the services. We support some of the health facilities with medicines. We can give them the medicines at no cost. And we strengthen first response in the community — especially through teachers. If a child gets a cut, they can apply some medicine and take the child to the facility.

These efforts save lives. But they are not in place everywhere — and Bongnaayili is one of the communities still waiting.

What’s desperately needed

A health post would change everything.

Above: Dasuyili, Northern Ghana — A functioning health post made possible by donor support. Mothers and babies get care quickly here. Bongnaayili is still waiting.

Somewhere close enough for mothers and small children to reach on foot. Somewhere a sick baby could be seen immediately and a woman in labour at night get the help she and her baby urgently need.

Until we have that, the danger for mothers and children will continue.

The impact that comes back full circle

I’ve worked with Children Believe for nine years — long enough to see something beautiful happen. Former sponsored children are now the ones giving back.

In the hospital, some of them are medical doctors, midwives, nurses.
In the education sector, teachers, head teachers.
In business, some are into construction.

They are giving back to their communities. Some run extra classes. Some donate school supplies. Some help children who have even less than they once did.

When I'm sick and I go to the hospital, they are there to attend to me.

Recently, I had to do an endoscopy and one of the children (now grown up) was the one who did the endoscopy on me. The laboratory technician was also a formerly sponsored child I have known for years.

And it comes full circle for my own family, too.

Above: Bongnaayili, Northern Ghana — Samuel playing a traditional jumping-and-clapping game with local children. Strong community bonds help him understand and support families in ways that go far beyond the classroom.

My children have former sponsored children who are teachers in their school.

Whether it is my own children at home or the sponsored children I support, I will defend their choices so they can make a better life for themselves.

This is what real change looks like.

How sponsors changed my children’s future

When I was growing up, I wanted to become a sponsored child — but I couldn’t be enrolled at that time. My children don't need to be enrolled as sponsored children because I can take care of them.

Above: Samuel with his family in Northern Ghana — living the future he once promised himself his children would have.

It’s because of our sponsors.

Today, I’m able to provide those things for my children because of the support Children Believe sponsors gave to my community. They supported my community with the right infrastructure… with water and sanitation… with the health facility that provided good health service to me.

Their support reached all of us — not only the sponsored children.

Children’s lives have been saved.

So please continue to support these communities with your resources so that babies will not die. Mothers will not die. Communities will not face diseases that will wipe them out.

Thank you for all the sacrifices you have made to bring water to us… to improve our health… for all the sacrifices you are making for our education.

Thank you!
 

Want to help mothers and babies reach care in time?
Support mothers, newborns, and children by giving a Health Care gift from our Gifts for Good catalogue.

Your support in action: Strengthening healthcare in Northern Ghana

Children Believe and our local partners are working with remote communities like Bongnaayili to close the deadly gap families face when trying to access healthcare. Here’s how your support is already making a difference:

• Bringing nurses closer to children. Your support helps provide fuel and travel incentives so community health nurses can reach villages like Bongnaayili more regularly — instead of only when “they are remembered.”
• Stocking clinics with essential medicines. Too often, parents arrive to find empty shelves. Donor-funded supplies mean children don’t have to walk or bike to distant towns to fill prescriptions.
• Training first responders in schools. Teachers and community volunteers learn how to stabilize children during seizures, injuries, and high fevers — buying crucial time on the way to a clinic.
• Supporting pregnant women and newborns. Mothers receive guidance on anemia, nutrition, safe delivery, and newborn care — lifesaving support when no health worker lives nearby.
• Building awareness that saves lives. Home visits, outreach sessions, and parent groups help families prevent illness, recognize danger signs early, and seek care before it’s too late.
• Strengthening local health posts (like the one in Dasuyili). Donor support has helped provide:
  – staff training on medical practices
  – digital patient records through laptops and phones
  – infant-weighing scales
  – hemoglobinometers for anemia detection
  – iron supplements and essential medicines
  – Weatamix for treating malnutrition in young children

In Dasuyili, anemia has dropped by 80 percent — a sign of what’s possible when rural clinics have the tools they need.