In October 2008, heavy fighting displaced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Aid workers and food distribution points were overrun by people desperate for food and water.
Many of the refugee camps housed pregnant women and their small children. These photos by
Sarah Elliott document the plight of these women as they struggle to maintain healthy pregnancies and give birth safely in the most rudimentary conditions.
In this picture, Congolese civilians flee intense fighting. Refugees took up camp in the Kibati IDP camp, about 12 kilometers from Goma.
Internally displaced people wait at a food distribution point in Kibati, 12km from the provincial capital of Goma. Thousands gathered to receive emergency biscuits for children.
Sarah Elliott
A group of Congolese female soldiers watch from the back of a military vehicle, as Rwandan Troops withdrawal from The Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Sarah Elliott
A group of girls walk through a large puddle in the Masisi Refugee camp. Heavy rains and loose soil have caused numerous mudslides in the camp, killing a number of young children.
Sarah Elliott
The “welcome village” for pregnant women welcomes women at risk during pregnancy. North Kivu Province, DRC.
Sarah Elliott
G. is 43 years old. “During the 1994 war, people in Masisi district were killed by machetes; others managed to escape. One day, when I was on my way to the fields with some other women – it was in 1996 – armed men stopped us, beat us and raped us. Some of the women fell in a ditch. I fell too and I am still limping today. Three of the women who were raped at the same time as me died a week later because of the injuries they had sustained. When I was raped, I was a widow. Later on – eight years ago – I got married once again to a widower who welcomed me and wanted to support me. Today we are old and our children take care of us.”
Sarah Elliott
In the maternity ward of Masisi hospital, a mother is giving a bath to her newborn baby. North Kivu Province, DRC.
Sarah Elliott
A young boy gets his hair cut in a camp for internally displaced people in Masisi.
Sarah Elliott
Women waiting to give birth at the ‘welcome village’ for pregnant women at the Masisi Hospital in The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Women may be accompanied by another woman to help prepare meals for them, or bring their younger children if there is no one to care for them while they are staying at the facility.
Sarah Elliott
A mother cradles her newborn baby in the maternity ward in the Masisi Hospital.
Sarah Elliott
A pregnant woman receives prenatal care in preparation of her delivery.
Sarah Elliott
Nsii Nukandirwa is 28 years old and pregnant for the fourth time. Her first three children are alive and well, and she’d like to have seven children in total. She knows exactly what to expect from the delivery and is very organized.
Sarah Elliott
