In northern Côte d'Ivoire, newly pregnant Machiami Coulibaly is accompanied on her journey to care by Muso, a global health organization that has just started working in her village — with some challenges along the way. This film is a product of the Solutions Storytelling Project.

Muso's Rapid Care model provides care without any out of pocket fees, bringing life-saving diagnostics and therapeutics into the home, and evacuating patients who require more complex care to redesigned rapid-access primary care clinics to receive care from skilled nurses, physicians, and midwives.

In December 2022, Muso launched its Rapid Care model in Madinani, Côte d’Ivoire. Around the same time, a young woman named Machiami Coulibaly found herself newly pregnant and seeking answers for her stomach pains. Every year, millions of individuals lose their lives while waiting for health care. For Machiami, and countless women like her across the globe, arriving at a health center even a day or an hour too late can mean the difference between life and death.

The delays she encountered on her journey - often stemming from barriers like gender inequality, geographical distance, inadequate infrastructure, and, most significantly, the cost of care - claim more lives than any single disease. Muso’s unwavering commitment and mission drive us to bridge the gap caused by these delays, ensuring that even those patients who might otherwise slip through the cracks, regardless of various obstacles, receive the health care they rightfully deserve. Across our partner sites, Muso reaches patients with exceptional speed: more than 90% of the sick children we treat receive care within 24 hours of their first symptom. But as we strive to build the world’s fastest healthcare system, we care obsessively about those few remaining patients who are still least likely to get care in time. Here we accompany Machiami, who faced many delays to care, at the site that needs the most additional support from Muso. She shows us the progress we have made, and the progress we must still make, on the path ahead. There remains much work to be done. Muso is committed to redoubling its efforts to fulfill the promise of curing the injustice of delay. You can too.

Here is her story.

Director: Martial Hangui

Producer: Laurent Bitty

Cinematography: Martial Hangui

Editor: Martial Hangui

Sound Recordist: Bolou Marius

Drone Operator: Alexis Akomon

Translators: Martial Hangui, Nana Mariam Maïga, Sylla Fanta

Colour: Rodrigue Gakpara

Featuring: Coulibaly Machiami, Koné Yaya, Bakary Fofana, Koné Bazoumana, Fofana Djeneba, Koné Adama, Lath Natacha

Story Consultants: Nana Mariam Maïga, Stephanie Rapp, Dr. Kouakou Parfait Brin, Kouadio Arnaud ME

Executive Producers: Sky Dylan-Robbins, Gabriel Diamond

Producers: Mungai Kiroga, Debra Aroko

Legal services: Matthew T. Rogers, Esq.

Music by: Yeko (Korafola), Astar, Salif Keita Nakaman, Junior State