A 12-year-old schoolgirl from Kenya’s western Busia county rowed her pregnant mother through flood waters to a hospital.
The mother, Judith Anyango Akala, said her waters broke at around 03:00 on Tuesday morning and asked her daughter to get her to a nearby hospital as her husband had left earlier in the night for work.
As their village, Rukala, is submerged by high water in Lake Victoria following heavy rains, the family is living in a camp together with other families who have been forced from their homes.
The young girl steered the boat through the dark using the torch from her mother’s mobile phone to help guide her.
Ms Akala said they rowed through vegetation and kept getting lost before arriving at the Rukala Model Health Centre. The journey took about an hour, she added.
A medic at the facility, Felix Pambula, told the BBC that the woman and unborn child could have died if the delivery was done at home.
“The foetus had a short umbilical cord that was wrapped around its neck. The mother and child were at risk and needed good attention,” he said.
The woman and her new-born were discharged on Wednesday but she said they have no money for food and the tents at the camp were too hot for the baby.
“We have found a house but we can’t raise the rent of 1,500 Kenyan shillings ($14; £10). We are asking for any help we can get,” she told the BBC.
