Margaret Achieng leaves home at 4am most days. She cycles up to 60 kilometres, often on unpaved roads, to reach women who have no other access to maternal care. She has been doing this since 1994.
In a region where the maternal mortality rate is among the highest on the continent, Margaret's presence has meant the difference between life and death — not once, but thousands of times. She has trained 84 community health workers, established 12 emergency transport networks, and mapped every high-risk pregnancy within a 200-kilometre radius of her home.
She has never received a salary from any government. She finances her work through a small cooperative she founded, a network of diaspora donors, and, as she puts it, "the stubborn belief that no woman should die bringing life into the world."