Mother - With her Life on the Line

Chrissy Andrew`s (34) birth has come to a halt. The baby is lying too far up and is too big. For mother and child to survive this, a caesarean will be necessary. In Malawi there is a desperate lack of qualified health-care workers and one in eighteen women die in connection with pregnancy and child birth.

During this pregnancy Chrissy has had one single check-up. Here she was told that she was HIV positive, something she shares with 12 percent of the population of her country. HIV further increases the health risk of pregnancy. Nevertheless, Chrissy denies that she is worried about her own health. As a tomato seller with four children to care for, there are other things in the mind of this Malawian woman: “What I’m afraid of is that I’ll have to pay”.  

Worldwide, over half a million women die each year as a result of complications with pregnancy, birth or abortion. 99 percent of these live in poor countries, mostly in Africa, south of the Sahara, and in southern Asia. For every woman who dies in pregnancy, at least 20 are seriously and often permanently damaged.  

This year it is ten years since maternal health was put forward as one of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. Goal 5 is to reduce maternal death by three quarters between 1990 and 2015. This is the one millennium goal that has made the least progress, despite the fact that nearly all the deaths could have been prevented if the women had had access to health services during pregnancy, birth and the weeks following the birth.  

”Mother – With her Life on the Line” is an ongoing documentary project. Marte Christensen has just received a grant from Karina Jensens Minnefond, which assures the continuation of the project. Pictures from this project will be exhibited at "Fotografiets dag" at Preus Museum in Horten (Norway) on August 22nd 2010.  

Hands and feet

1922 versus 2008 model

Una (1) i barnehagen

Una Ims Westvold er en av rekordmange ettåringer som starter i barnehage høsten 2009. Det er flere enn mamma Ida og pappa Thomas som er bekymret for hvordan hun vil klare seg. Målet om full barnehagedekning er nådd, men på landsbasis mangler 4400 førskolelærere for å fylle minstekravet til pedagogtetthet. Hvordan er det for ettåringen i barnehagen? Vi ble med på Unas første uke på småbarnsavdelingen Maurtua.

Bolivia

Evo Morales became the first indigenous president of Bolivia in 2005. His political issue number one was nationalization of the petroleum industry and - on the way there - higher taxes on foreign companies. He wanted the country’s natural resources to benefit the population in one of the world’s poorest countries, rather than the big, international companies. We went to Bolivia to hear how the Bolivians thought about their future, and the politics of the new president. Some underlined that what Morales really was doing, was not nationalization, but a renegotiation of the contracts with the international companies. In that way Bolivia would get more tax money, and at the same time keep the international investments and technology that the country depends on.

Bolivia is divided between the poor highlands where the president is popular and the indigenous people are in majority, and the lowland where the petroleum recourses are located and the opposition is dominating. The challenges for the new president are numerous; one of them is keeping the country united.

The Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas

It is now 25 years since the Falkland War between Argentina and Britain. After traveling across Argentina, we learned that the Argentines to a large extent are still very bitter about their loss, and think that Britain should hand them the islands back. The Falklanders, however, who are of British heritage and have lived on the islands for generations, see themselves as British. They do not support the solution that a young, moderate Argentinean suggested to us; that the islands should become independent.

A day with money

Poverty is relative. In a country like Norway you do not starve to death. Never the less, a certain percentage of the population is considerably poorer that the average Norwegian. While the majority of us are traveling like never before, there are still twelve percent of the families in the capital that never go on holiday. The half of these families, do not go because they cannot afford it. How is it for these children to grow up in a society where so much of what we do depend upon having the money? We joined some of these children on a free one-day-trip arranged by Fattighuset. Hunderfossen amusement park was our destination.