Brave 13-year-old Virginia Aoko saved the life of her mother and that of her younger brother during a midnight emergency.
It all began on the night of Tuesday, May 18, when Aoko, her mother Judith Anyango who was pregnant and her younger brother were spending the night at a local shelter after being displaced by floods.
Anyango narrated that she started experiencing labour pains at around 10 p.m. but the pain became unbearable for her at around 3 a.m.
Her daughter, who was sleeping in a makeshift structure adjacent to hers, heard her mother calling out and decided to take her to the hospital in the middle of the night.
"At around 10 p.m., I experienced labour pains but I was just alone because I had transferred the children and remained at the camp. When It got to 3 a.m., the pain became worse and the water had broke," she stated.
At the same time, her brother, who had contracted the malaria virus, was also convulsing.
When Aoko responded, she found her mother in a helpless state and decided to help her onto the boat in order to take her to the hospital.
She paddled for a period of two hours and luckily, she arrived at Rukala Model Health Center where her mother was admitted immediately.
"I thought my mother needed help but found out that my mother was in labour and had to be rushed to the hospital,
"I was worried that if I did not act fast, my mother could lose the baby and even die. I didn't want to lose her as she means a lot to us," she told Nation.
At the time of the incident, her father was not around. He had joined his colleagues in a night-long fishing expedition.
Rukala Health Center Nursing Officer Felix Pambula not that he was surprised that the girl had braved the chilly night and reeds to get her mother to the hospital.
The girl noted that she had been taught how to paddle the boat as a survival mechanism in the often flood-hit neighbourhood of Budalangi, Busia County.
