Martha Amok Mating is 27 years old, from South Sudan. She got her midwifery diploma at the Health Institute in Rumbek in January. Martha started working in Rumbek hospital in 2018, back then she was assisting the anesthetist in the theatre room. Altough she had no professional qualification, not a diploma, Martha was driven by a deep passion and the strong desire to sooner or later enter that room with a proper qualification.
«What I do it is not just a job: to be a midwife means to hold life in your hands and to be dedicated to women’s health, any time. In our culture there are many taboos: assisted birth in hospital is only one of the numerous women face everyday. I believe in education to overcome those social customs and empower young women. As I midwife, I feel this is also my responsibility. I stand with women at delivery but to ensure their well-being every day, throughout their life, is my mission».
The right to health and the right to education are one to Martha who is a woman and a midwife in one of the most fragile country in the world, South Sudan where 92% of the deliveries are not assisted by qualified health personnel and therefore records one of the highest maternal mortality rate in the world: 1.150 per 100.000 live birth. Moreover, literacy rate for women is just 28% in the country.
«I do remember well the day I went to the Hopspital Director – says Martha with a nostalgic smile on her face, I needed a job so I grasped the opportunity. I have been observing and questioning for two years. I could do nothing by myself, I was not qualified but by working alongside with professionals health workers I learned how to do things successfully. Collaborating».
Martha never stopped working. She got married, she had a baby then she decided to take the midwifery studies. She did it in Rumbek, in that same hospital where she had been working over the past years. For three years Martha was fully dedicated to finish her studies: she was in class in the morning, in the theatre room in the afternoon and breastfeeding in between. She was able to cover part of the fees and achieve her goal thanks to a CUAMM scholarship within a more comprehensive intervention at Rumbek Health Science Institute funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) aiming at capacity building of nurses, midwives, and other health care professionals.
«Was that easy? It was not but you cannot just complain in life. What you have to do is to give yourself some time and think, critically. To study and to get that diploma was an opportunity not just for me but for my whole family. With that diploma, I knew I could have got a job and therefore provide financially for my family whose support was essential».
Martha does not fail to thank her parents and husband who took care of the baby during the studies allowing her to fully commit to both the studies and the clinical activity. A path she might not have undertook at all if not for a fortunate encounter, one of that marking a “before” and “after” that had the name of a Italian doctor: «he stayed in South Sudan between 2013 and 2020. Dottor Enzo Pisani was the one who encouraged me study, I was not willing to do it. I have no heard from him ever since, wherever he is now I want to say “thank you”, I want him to know that I made it. I am a midwife now».
