In 1991 Cindy Mitchell traveled to Casablanca for the Chicago Sister Cities Program. While there, she toured the 276-bed Ibn Rochd Children’s Hospital, an enormous complex of many buildings erected around the turn of the century by the French when they occupied Morocco.
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Ibn Rochd not only serves the five million people of Casablanca but those living in the 37,000 villages of the country as well. The pediatric and maternity units are blocks apart. “There are no ambulances to transport sick babies,” Mitchell says. “If it’s cold outside, the child may get hypothermia and die en route.”
Great strides have been made since the partnership began. According to Mitchell, now chair of the city’s Casablanca committee, mortality rates have fallen, especially in the area of premature births. “Prior to this exchange the hospital was unable to care for any premature baby weighing under four pounds,” she says. “After a three-month training course at UIC last summer, medical personnel from the hospital were able to establish a neonatal unit for the treatment of premature babies.”
