Women in Kokolopori, a remote impoverished community of 35 villages in Equateur Province, DR Congo, have been trained as midwives, but need basic equipment to help them deliver babies safely.
As in much of sub-Saharan Africa, the lifetime risk of women in Kokolopori dying in childbirth is one in 14, and 13% of babies die before the age of one. In 2009, the first midwives graduated from training, but they have no medical supplies, drugs, or equipment with which to deliver babies. Viviane, one of the new midwives, says, "We are proud to perform this important job, but while our heads are full of knowledge, and our hearts are full of determination, our hands are still empty".
Providing the needed equipment and supplies will enable midwives to prevent infections by ensuring a sterile birth environment, safely accomplish breech and other problem deliveries, and prevent post-partum hemorrhage from claiming women's lives
Training and equipping midwives in Kokolopori villages brings hope to this community of 8,000. It not only prevents needless suffering, it enables women to take control of their reproductive health and improve their families standard of living.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
