Next door, is a delivery room, complete with a padded birthing table, and adjacent to that, a small maternity ward with a few beds. Matron Micheline, who lives right beside the clinic, is on hand day and night to provide much-needed maternity care. She proudly shows us her midwifery certificate that she obtained two years ago. Now, an estimated five in every six pregnant women in Gbadengue choose to give birth in the safety of the facility.
When it comes to childhood health and nutrition, Rufin and a team of well-trained health volunteers carry out daily screenings at the facility and organise a mobile clinic every fortnight in a village 15 kilometres away. They use the resources available to them to spot the signs of malnutrition - scales and a wooden measuring board to record weight and height, and prescribe emergency therapeutic food, malaria medication, hydration salts, worming tablets and vitamins, where necessary.