“I have seen it all with mixed feelings as with devastation, suffering and pain caused by the conflict in the most testing times of our history, I have witnessed audacity of our people to build back better and observed joy and hope that every newborn has brought to Libya and its future,” says Hakima, 57, a midwife in Tripoli’s University Hospital.

Libya has been grappling with a deficient health system delivery as one of the outcomes of a long-lasting instability and uncertainty exacerbated further by COVID-19. However, during the gravest of the challenges, Hakima’s story is a recognition of the invaluable services of many unsung heroes in midwives and nurses who came forward to provide essential reproductive health aid to Libyan people especially women, saving many precious lives.