How an IRC midwife helped a mother give birth in the midst of crisis.

As a pastoralist, Anfac’s main source of income and food for her family came from raising healthy livestock. However, three consecutive years of drought in Ethiopia completely upended her life, causing all of her livestock to perish and leaving her family without any food to eat. “We were just pastoralists, and now we have nothing to live on,” says Anfac. In East Africa, which is heavily dependent on agro-pastoral activities, the prolonged and severe drought has decimated livelihoods. 6.8 million livestock have died in Ethiopia alone, forcing people like Anfac and her family to leave their homes and seek food assistance.