KAYA, Burkina Faso — Ramata Sawadogo was eight weeks pregnant when she was chased from her home by gunmen in May of last year. The 30-year-old spent the next few months running from village to village, in search of refuge and health care, in Burkina Faso’s center-north region.
At times, Sawadogo walked for more than a week with her six children to reach another town. Other times, she’d sleep in abandoned schools, all the while concerned that the stress and lack of food and medical care would harm her unborn baby.
“When I walked a lot, I got tired and was worried about the pregnancy,” Sawadogo said. Seated in a health clinic in a makeshift displacement site in Kaya town, where she now lives, she cradled her 7-month-old, grateful he