Project

Sierra Leone was known as one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth.

The country has made steady progress over the past decade, but that progress is now under threat due to drastic cuts to foreign aid.

Over the course of one full week, our cameras filmed round-the-clock with medical teams at Ola During Children’s Hospital and Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Freetown, where over 600 women deliver every month. We followed the tireless efforts of frontline health workers as they help to deliver babies – and save the lives of mothers – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

It’s an environment where the start of one life can cause the end of another, a space where birth and death co-exist like nowhere else.

Produced in partnership with The Fuller Project and Channel 4 News, the documentary takes place against the backdrop of these unprecedented cuts to aid funding globally and the impact on one of the most vulnerable health systems in Africa. 

Watch the full film on Youtube:

Impact

The film was broadcast in full on Channel 4 News in the UK in March. It was also syndicated and released by media partners in Spain, Sierra Leone and upcoming in the US. Cutdowns of the film have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times across social media.

The film formed part of Fuller’s Motherhood edition, with an accompanying article exploring the cuts in more detail, and asking the question: Can Sierra Leone keep its mothers alive?

It was screened to key donors and partners at a side event of the UN Commission on the Status of Women for International Women’s Day in March 2026. It is also scheduled to be screened in UK parliament to MPs, funders and development practitioners in the coming months to prompt a discussion on what can be done to fill the funding gap.