A pregnant Congolese woman is seen at her home in the neighborhood of Birere, Goma, North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, on April 10, 2008. The woman is participating in the Alpha Vjuvy program of literacy and job training and is being ‘reintegrated’ into her life after the trauma of sexual assault. On average, 400 women per month were estimated to be sexually assaulted in the autumn of 2007 in eastern DRC.

Mamma Sessay, 18, lies on the delivery table next to her first-born twin as she waits to deliver the second at the Magburaka Government Hospital in Magburaka. Sessay was forced to marry at 14 years old to a man who was about 50, and delivered her first child at 15. During her second pregnancy, Sessay delivered the first twin child the day before at the Moyorgboh Maternal Child Health post near her village, but her contractions ceased for the second child. She then traveled by canoe and ambulance from her village to the Magburaka Government Hospital where she delivered the second baby with the aid of midwives and hospital nurses. Sessay had postpartum hemorrhaging and died as she was brought to the one doctor in the hospital.

The doctor checks the vitals of Mamma Sessay (pictured in the last photo with first twin), 18, and pronounces her dead, moments after she finally reached the doctor, and was given blood and an IV, about one and a half hours after postpartum hemorrhaging began at the Magburaka Government Hospital in Magburaka, Tonkolili district, Northern Province, Sierra Leone. Sessay had postpartum hemorrhaging and died as she was brought to the one doctor in the hospital.