International Women's Day 2025

Our Field Hospital team has helped women deliver hundreds of healthy babies over the past few months.

Samaritan's Purse serves vulnerable women around the globe through a variety of projects. Among them, we recently set up our Emergency Field Hospital in Gedaref, Sudan, to serve internally displaced women and children who've had to flee violent conflict. It’s been an amazing opportunity to demonstrate God's love to people who can easily feel forgotten by the whole world.

As violence encircles them, millions of Sudanese people flee their hometowns seeking safety. They often leave with nothing and walk for over a week to find a safe place to stay. They cannot go home until there is peace.

Gedaref is one of the places they have settled, doubling the city's population overnight and straining the local medical system.

Samaritan's Purse responded to these emergency medical needs with a fully self-sufficient, customisable tent hospital, which was loaded onto and delivered by the ministry's cargo aircraft. From this Emergency Field Hospital our medical team is providing lifesaving obstetric and paediatric care that otherwise would be inaccessible.

Meet some of the new mothers who are experiencing expert care and Christian compassion from the Samaritan's Purse medical team in Gedaref.

Samar & Farha

When a brand-new baby girl appeared from the operating room tent and Samar's grandmother learnt both mom and baby were safe and healthy, she couldn't suppress her joy. Other women joined in with cries of excitement that drew smiles from everyone in earshot.

Samar already has two sons, and now she has Farha, which means happiness.

“I'm familiar with the cesarean section,” Samar said, “but here it was a different experience. Even in the operating theatre, I felt that everybody was taking care of me.”

Two days later, Samar was ready to go home, or at least, the place she is calling home for now.

Ayam & Baby Boy

In Sudan, it's common to have many children, and this little boy is Ayam's ninth!

When we asked how she was feeling before giving birth, Ayam said, “I'm not nervous.”

Her other eight children were all delivered at home, but a lot has changed for Ayam since coming to Gedaref eight months ago. She doesn't have a comfortable place to give birth here, and the local women's shelter suggested Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital.

As Ayam laboured, we spoke with her Aunt Nyagoa, who has come to help. She explained that in the public hospital she would be responsible for changing IV bags, sheets, and meals—anything the patient needed. Since everything is provided free of charge at Samaritan's Purse hospital, Nyagoa sits and chats about how much she adores little babies.

When Ayam goes back to deliver, she sits outside, listening expectantly…

Najawa & Baby Boy

Najawa's life has been full of difficulties since coming to Gedaref one year ago. Her husband hasn't been able to find work, and the family of seven live at a shelter for displaced people. Still, she was filled with relief and joy to hold her new son in her arms.

During past cesarean-sections, Najawa said she was unconscious, but at Samaritan's Purse field hospital, she was able to meet her son right away and remembers everything from his birth.

Malik & Baby Girl

When we showed Malik this photo of her with her first child, a daughter, tears began rolling down her cheeks.

Sharing her birth story, Malik said that she had excessive bleeding after delivery, and she's grateful for the doctors and nurses who saved her.

“The whole team took care of me,” Malik said. “As your doctors have helped me today, I wish when my daughter grows up, she'll be a doctor so she can help others.”

The EFH brings hope to patients and doctors alike…

In the hospital, many of the Sudanese healthcare professionals and translators working alongside the Samaritan's Purse team are displaced just like their patients. Others who are from Gedaref still have not escaped the impacts of war.

“I saw very bad things,” said Samah Lalgasmin, a local fourth-year resident who is working in labour and delivery at the Emergency Field Hospital.

As people flooded into Gedaref, only five of Lalgasmin's cohort of 30 residents remained at the hospital. Many believed Gedaref could be invaded next and feared doctors would be targeted as hostages.

Back then, Lalgasmin worked for two weeks straight, taking on four times her normal workload. She was no longer training but using all of her skills to save women who'd developed severe medical conditions on their journey to Gedaref. Sadly, many women who couldn't afford care were turned away.

“I'd want to cry,” Lalgasmin said of that time. “To be unable to help a woman who needs it is a very bad feeling. Here (with Samaritan's Purse), I can help a hundred with no problem. I'm so happy when I go home every day because I got to help and do a good job.”

“She's extremely committed to caring for her people,” said Dr. Becky Haak, the Samaritan's Purse OB/GYN working alongside Lalgasmin. “I give that such great honour, and I'll do anything I can to improve her skills and help her complete her training.”

With over 45 years of experience as an OB/GYN, Dr. Haak has a lot of knowledge to share, but her ultimate hope is that her work can be a Christian witness.

“This is an opportunity to open their eyes to the fact that the love of God alters how we deliver medicine,” she said.

Our teams show compassion for every individual, believing they are made in the image of God. Locals can see that, and note how our medical personnel treat the women and children in their care with unusual dignity. “That's something maybe they've never seen before,” Dr. Haak said.

Your gift to Medical Ministries will provide physical and spiritual relief to women in need, like those delivering their babies at our Emergency Field Hospital in Sudan.