Heroic girl rowed pregnant mother across Lake Victoria at 3am to hospital

“Oh no! Not again!” 12-year-old Virginia Aoko said silently to herself when her mother, Judith Anyango Akala, woke her up at 3am on Tuesday.

The edge of urgency in her mother’s voice left no doubt there was an emergency and she had to act fast. 

The first thought that crossed her mind was that her smaller brother, who had malaria, was convulsing. 

If not her brother, she feared another disaster was afoot and they needed to move again from the camp for displaced persons where she and her family have been staying after their home in Bunyala, Busia County, was submerged alongside whole villages by backflow of water from a swollen Lake Victoria.

“At first I thought my younger brother who had malaria was convulsing and needed medical attention, but I found out that my mother was in labour and needed to be rushed to hospital,” said Virginia, a Class Seven pupil at Budala Primary School.

Virginia’s father had earlier in the night joined other villagers on a fishing mission in the deeper reaches of the lake, so the task of saving her mother’s life and that of her unborn baby fell on her. 

It was chilly and dark, but the young girl managed to pull a feat that has left residents of Rukala village in shock and disbelief. 

Undaunted by the risks ahead, the tiny girl grabbed a paddle and, summoning all the courage she could muster, asked her mother to jump into a boat. She was determined to rush her mother to hospital.

“I was worried that if I did not act fast enough, she might lose the baby and perhaps die from the labour complications. I did not want to lose her because she meant so much to us,” said Virginia.

Once the mother of six had boarded the boat, Virginia courageously steered the vessel into the chilly night. 

As she struggled to manouvre the vessel through tangled reeds and hyacinth, the little girl was keen not to betray the fact that it was difficult finding her way to Rukala Health Centre, two kilometres away, in the foggy dawn weather. 

“It was not easy finding the direction to the hospital but I kept trying until we got there. By then, my mother was in great pain. When we got to the health centre, the nurses quickly responded and helped save my mother’s and the baby’s lives.

“I didn’t want to lose my mother and become an orphan. I also knew if I didn’t take the risk she might have lost the baby,” said Virginia.

Swollen lake

The nursing officer at the health facility, Mr Felix Pambula, said he was shocked to learn that the young girl had braved the darkness and paddled the boat for two hours across the vast and now swollen lake to help her mother deliver in the safety of a health centre.

A precociously intelligent girl, Virginia had long figured out that, given the pain floods had caused her family over the years, she might need boat riding skills someday. She had, therefore, asked her brother to teach her how to paddle and steer a boat in water.

“I have not mastered the art of rowing a boat steadily, but since we live in a flooded environment all year round, one has to learn how to swim and row a boat to survive the challenges facing families in Budalang’i,” said Virginia.

Swimming, rowing a boat and fishing are three basic skills that are increasingly being imparted to children in this flood-prone region to enable them to survive the perennial ravages wrought on the land by seasonal floods.

To Virginia and her family’s eternal joy, Ms Anyango safely delivered a baby boy. 

Mr Pambula said if there had been a delay in taking the Virginia’s mother to hospital, she could have lost the baby because the umbilical cord had twisted around its neck.

“This could have led to suffocation of the baby if the mother was not attended to urgently. But we are happy that the baby has been born without any complications,” said Mr Pambula.

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