Save women and children from dying during birth

Summary

We train village girls to become community midwives in our training school in El Fasher. They leave their villages and travel to the city for a 10 month training course. When they return to their villages with their new skills in maternal and child health care they are able to help new mothers in their own villages during pregnancy and childbirth. Any health care is minimal in Darfur; our girls reduce deaths in childbirth, deliver healthy babies and improve infant care.

What is the issue, problem, or challenge?

The average age of women in the villages is only 34 years due to the high rates of maternal mortality. One of the greatest problems is the lacked of trained midwives. The only help available to women in childbirth is from traditional birth attendants who have had no training even in basic hygiene. With female genital mutilation widespread, obstruction often prevents natural birth and women in advanced stages of labour have to make the difficult journey to hospital putting mother and baby at risk

How will this project solve this problem?

10 village midwives will be trained in basic hygiene, ante and post-natal care, infant care, immunisation and nutrition for 1 year. In recent years, the mobile network in the Sudan has improved. All of our midwives now receive a mobile telephone, a strong cross-bred donkey for reaching mothers quickly in an emergency, a Solar Lantern for night deliveries and a pair of leather sandals to protect their feet from the burning sand.

Potential Long Term Impact

Deaths of mothers in childbirth reduced through modern birth techniques, early referral of problem cases and better spacing of births. Infants and young children will be healthier, better nourished and immunised against killer diseases. In an emergency, women will be quickly transported to hospital in the capital.

Project Message

Women greatly appreciate the services of the midwives and one midwife, Nadia, delivered 185 healthy babies in six months following her training as women from a wide area sought her services
- Mohammed Siddiq, Former Project Manager in Darfur

Additional Documentation

This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).

Resources

Donate by US Mobile Phone