A report aired on April 4th by Televisão Miramar, within the scope of the Contacto Directo program, revealed that the implementation of the CHAMPS program in the districts of Quelimane (Zambézia province) and Manhiça (Maputo province) helped to clarify the causes of death in children under five years in the community.
Next, the story of grandmother Danefa Rafael is told, over fifty years old, and who for a long time, lived with her 32-year-old daughter and minor granddaughter. Although, everything changed when her granddaughter lost her newborn in maternity, having grandmother Danefa be suspected by her granddaughter and daughter of being the protagonist of the early death of her great-grandchildren, as that was the second newborn to be born without life.
Due to this suspicion, family ties began to be turbulent. As the woman explained, her daughter and granddaughter left home to live far away from her. Almost every day, she lived with the burden of "having killed her great-grandchildren", and consequently no longer having the support of her daughter and granddaughter for her survival. Meanwhile, the results of samples taken from the first newborn who have already been shared with the family, revealed perinatal asphyxia as the cause of death. Therefore, there’s no reason the great-grandmother should continue to be blamed for the loss of her great-grandchildren.
Stories as this one are frequent in the district of Quelimane, defended Manuel Boronge, second-rank chief of the Incídua neighborhood. According to him, this could be a result of the “community’s lack of knowledge about the real causes that have been taking the lives of children under five years old, worse when a pregnant woman returns home without her baby”. This thought is confirmed by a Marongane Locality chief, according to him”, in our communities, death must always have an explanation and, in the absence of this, doctors, family and neighbors are often blamed”.
In the district of Manhiça, the stories of three mothers who lost their children in completely different situation are told. Among them, Mrs. Amélia, resident in Palmeiras, says that when she found out she was pregnant, she made all the consultations, but one day, however, she felt severe pain and when she went to do lesser needs, she realized she was bleeding. She was immediately taken to the Maciane Health Center, and then, being unconscious, was transferred to the Manhiça District Hospital (HDM). She gained back her conscious in the HDM and realized she had lost her baby. This loss raised several questions to try to understand what she did to lose her child. However, all these questions were only answered when the results collected in the scope of the CHAMPS project were shared with her. As she explains: “the baby sucked a lot of blood and this led to the child's loss of life”.
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