Before MSF started its medical activities in this region in January 2016, there were no emergency obstetric or neonatal care facilities in the highly populated sub-county of Likoni. Expectant mothers had to take a ferry across the channel to reach the maternal services on Mombasa Island, which increased the risk of delivery complications. In an emergency, the time taken to make the crossing could prove life-threatening for mothers and babies alike. Worldwide, some 830 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth every day—the vast majority in low-resource settings, according to the World Health Organization.
That’s why MSF decided to rehabilitate and expand the old Mrima health center in Likoni. However, to ensure access to medical services until the new center was functional, MSF had to do one of the things it does best: come up with innovative ways to care for people. Container Village, as it came to be known, became a haven where many mothers could safely deliver their babies, even with complicated pregnancies. The facility—which had 30 beds, a delivery room, a blood bank, and an operating theater for obstetric emergencies—offered sexual and reproductive health services, including Caesarean sections.
Earlier this year, MSF opened a permanent hospital in Likoni. Although Container Village is now empty, everyone involved remains proud of the role it played in helping many expectant mothers. Over the course of two years and four months, medics assisted 11,578 deliveries in this unique shipping-container facility.
Initially, MSF assisted around 300 deliveries a month. But when a 100-day doctors’ strike was followed by a countrywide nurses’ strike starting in June 2017, many people in Kenya were left without access to medical care. Container Village struggled to cope with the huge increase in patient numbers. In 2017, MSF teams assisted 7,873 deliveries in the health center, including 1,656 by Caesarean section. This was more than five times the number of the previous year.