By Gihan Hassanein in Tunisia
Every day, there are new arrivals at Shousha camp on the Tunisian–Libyan border, but on 12 March, the camp welcomed someone special: baby Qamar.
Qamar was born at 9.30 in the morning in the Moroccan military hospital and she is the firstborn of Maria, a young Somali woman who fled Libya with her husband, sister and brother-in-law. Qamar, which means moon, arrived into the world with the assistance of Hanene Fkih, a Red Crescent volunteer and midwife.
“It was amazing, especially here. It gives hope,” she says. “The mother was very brave, even in this situation, she was really happy. I could see her joy.”
Finishing her studies in 2010, this was Hanene's first birth as a qualified midwife. She was already a Red Crescent volunteer before the crisis began and, like many of her fellow volunteers, she knew she had to travel from Tunis to the border to help.
The birth went very quickly with no complications. Dr Zazi, the Moroccan doctor who attended the birth, said there was no time to send her to the nearest hospital in Ben Guerdane. Fortunately, conditions in the camp hospital are excellent. The baby was healthy and responsive, “and we can't hope for any better than that,” he says.
In their tent, Maria and Qamar lie on donated mattresses in the sprawling camp that has seen tens of thousands of people come and go, most back to their home countries. When asked if they will go back to Somalia, she answers a quiet “no”. Life was hard in Libya, but it will be harder still in Somalia.
Like many people in the camp, she would like to go to Europe. Already in the camp for nine days, she and her family are among the longer residents in a camp that is only meant to be a temporary stopover for people on their way somewhere else.
The future may be uncertain for Maria and her family, but looking down at her sleeping daughter, the new mother looks content. As Dr Zazi puts it, Qamar is “un petit bonheur qui efface tout le malheur” – a ray of sunshine amid all the unhappiness.