Dear Friend,
Just one week ago, you helped us raise over $5,000 with matching funds on GlobalGiving’s Bonus Day. That amount means 106 nurses in Tanzania will be trained and equipped to respond to emergencies with confidence and clinical expertise.
A skilled provider at the time of birth means a pregnant woman in Tanzania has a better opportunity to experience the joy of being alive and taking her healthy baby home.
Together with the rest of the CCBRT team, I thank you for your generosity and support that has allowed us to do the work we do. It is gratifying to see our work over the last six years bear fruit and contribute to a significant improvement in the competency and confidence of the nurses trained. The decline in the number of maternal deaths in the region is encouraging and motivates us to persist in our efforts.
Every day, I see your impact with my own eyes, but what is unseen is the hope that invigorates the healthcare workers on the ground to know that people so far away care about them and the women and newborns they serve.
Meet my colleague Dorcas
Dorcas is our Senior Midwife Trainer, the team that will train those 106 nurses.
“I train medical teams in all 23 of our partner facilities,” she says. “I work to empower the maternal health teams with the mentoring, training and resources they need to save more lives.”
“One of these facilities serves 70,000 people every year. In 2011, my team performed an assessment to identify the facility’s quality of care. It scored 2% (perfection is a score of 100%1). While staff were dedicated to helping mothers and babies, they did not have the equipment, tools, or skills to provide high-quality care to their patients.”
“Over the last six years we have worked closely with staff to collect data, find the gaps in equipment and skills, and identify the key challenges. We have tailored our training to address the root cause of the problem and teach the intervention needed to solve it.”
“In November 2015, this facility’s quality of care had improved to 87%. I was so proud. As the skills and confidence of service providers increased, so did the number of babies delivered safely to their families. In 2011, the facility delivered 406 babies. In 2015, the staff assisted with 1,386 deliveries, with zero maternal deaths.”
Friends, this is your generosity in action.
I’m so thankful to be on this journey with you. On behalf of Dorcas and my team here in Tanzania, thank you for making this life saving work possible.
Sincerely,
Dr. Brenda D’Mello. OB/GYN
Using stories to build on success.
Your generous support over the last 5 years has empowered our sister organization in Tanzania, CCBRT, to provide training, on-the-job mentoring, critical equipment and supplies to 23 public healthcare facilities in Dar es Salaam, improving the quality of care available to expectant mothers and their newborns. Recent reports have shown incredible progress. Since 2012 our partner sites have reported:
Today, mothers and babies in the Dar es Salaam region face a brighter future, and it’s thanks to you.
The data above shows that we’re moving in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go. Thousands of mothers and newborns still die during pregnancy or childbirth each year, due to a lack of access to high quality care, and for every woman that dies, 20 more will develop an injury, infection or debilitating disability like obstetric fistula.
On International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, we reflected on how we can continue to mobilize the support we need for programs working to treat and prevent obstetric fistula while meeting our responsibilities as global storytellers. How do we, as fundraisers, clinicians and global health advocates tell compelling stories without jeopardizing the privacy or dignity of the people we serve?
We reflect on this important issue in more detail in our latest blog post. Click here to hear the perspectives of our friends at Fistula Foundation, Johnson & Johnson and EngenderHealth. On International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, we also convened the #HerWords Twitter chat in partnership with CCBRT, Johnson & Johnson and Fistula Foundation. Check out the highlights from the conversation here on our Storify.
Dear Friends,
We’re emailing to ask for urgent help to secure our place on the GlobalGiving Girl Fund, helping us do more for women recovering from obstetric fistula at the Mabinti Centre in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. These women’s lives were devastated by a lack of access to quality maternal and newborn healthcare. Given your support for our maternal and newborn healthcare programs in the past, we thought you may be interested in showing your support today.
The Mabinti Centre is a project of our sister organization, CCBRT, where women recovering from surgery to repair the devastating childbirth-related injury, obstetric fistula, can be equipped to become entrepreneurs in their communities.
We’ve got one more day to win a place on the Girl Fund, which will give us exclusive access to additional funding and unlock matching gifts that will enable us to reach more women in 2017. But we need your help. We need 180 people to take action by midnight EST on March 15th to help us unlock this opportunity.
How can an you help?
Your contribution, no matter the amount, takes us one step closer to unlocking support and empowering women and girls like Lidya.
A graduate of The Mabinti Centre, Lidya’s story began with tragedy, but was transformed into one of opportunity and triumph. The trauma and grief that Lidya experienced during the delivery of her children is beyond what many of us can imagine. But, losing her first child at just 2-days-old, raising a child with a disability caused by birth complications, and developing fistula on two separate occasions, has only made Lidya stronger.
“When I was admitted to the national hospital to deliver my first baby, my doctor referred me to an intern. They used a vacuum to assist with the delivery. My baby was born with his brain outside of his body, and he died 2 days later.
After the delivery, my legs were paralyzed. My husband’s family bullied me, and told him to leave me because I was damaged, and wouldn't be able to give him any more children. He deserted me. I couldn't even afford the bus fare to attend the clinic for check-ups.
I married again, and had another child. This baby also got stuck during delivery, and was born with a disability. I was leaking. I was so ashamed that I left my husband. I left Dar es Salaam behind and went to live with my grandmother in our rural village. It was there that I read a leaflet about fistula, and realized I could get treatment. I had my surgery in 2005, and got back together with my second husband.”
Scarred both physically and emotionally by the birth of her first two children, Lidya was determined that her third pregnancy would be different.
“I always say that I ‘bought’ my third child. After all of the problems I’d had in the past, I paid to deliver at a private hospital, to ensure that my baby and I were safe. I trusted my doctor, but just before I went into labor, she was called away. She referred me to the doctor who was responsible for delivering my first baby. Once again, he left me with an intern, even though I begged him not to.
My third child was delivered safely, but the scars from my fistula opened again three days after my delivery. I had another surgery to correct it.
I finished my training at the Mabinti Centre in 2012. I now have a successful business. I go to fairs, and sell my products in my community.
My experience of living with fistula has made me the successful businesswoman I am today. I am now able to pay for my children to go to school, and my income means I can support my own siblings as well.“
In its 10 years of operation, the Mabinti Centre has restored a sense of independence, hope, and purpose to 100 women like Lidya.
Please, give what you can by midnight on March 15th, and share this project with your friends and family and encourage them to do the same. Together we can enable Mabinti to empower even more women recovering from fistula in Tanzania.
Thank you.
Starting today, your generosity could help us win a place on the GlobalGiving Girl Fund, allowing us to transform tragedy into opportunity for more women and girls like Hadidjia
Hadidjia did not have access to high quality maternal healthcare when she delivered her first baby, and had labor pains for two weeks before finally giving birth at a hospital. Her baby survived, but Hadidjia developed a devastating birth injury, obstetric fistula, and lived with chronic incontinence for a decade. Now, thanks to a fistula repair surgery at CCBRT, and her training at The Mabinti Centre, she has taken her future into her own hands.
Meet Hadidjia
“I lived like this for 10 years, with my mother. My neighbors told me I smelled, and forced me to stay inside. When my mother passed away, I had no one left to talk to, and nobody to look after me. I went to my father’s sister for help, but she told me I was cursed. She chased me away from her house and refused to let me live there. I was fired from two jobs, both times because of the smell."
"When I asked my mother’s family for help, my uncle told me that I needed to get married, and that he had found a man for me. I told him I couldn't get married, and explained why. My family told the man everything, but he wasn't discouraged. He still wanted to marry me. He had heard about fistula before, and he was the one who helped me find help from CCBRT."
"Now that I have had surgery, and I have trained at The Mabinti Centre, I have my own business. I make clothes and bags, and do embroidery and sewing. The money I earn helps me pay for my children’s school fees. I never need to worry about losing my job again, because I am my own boss.”
For the Empowerment of Women and Girls
The Mabinti Centre empowers women recovering from fistula repair surgery with the tools and confidence to start their own business or seek employment. Our new GlobalGiving project, “Give Women Recovering from Fistula a Bright Future” will raise dedicated support for the Mabinti Centre. This project is in the running to win a place on the GlobalGiving Girl Fund, giving us access to exclusive matching donations. We need your help to unlock this opportunity.
How can you help?
A donation from you, no matter the value, is a vote of confidence in the work of Kupona, and a show of support for the women and girls working hard to rebuild their lives at the Mabinti Centre.
You hold the key to unlock their potential.
Thank you,
Abbey
Dear Friends,
Last year, you - our GlobalGiving community - gave over $11,000 to help improve the quality of healthcare available to vulnerable people in Tanzania. That’s enough to support a midwife’s salary for a whole year, and provide 40 hours of clinical training, to equip the same midwife with the skills and confidence to perform high quality deliveries, and save lives.
Your donations didn't just have a direct impact on the women and newborns we serve in Tanzania. You also gave us access to nearly $3,000 in additional funding from GlobalGiving and their partners. You unlocked matching funds during GlobalGiving Bonus Days, and boosted our project ranking, attracting the support of GlobalGiving’s corporate partners and promoting our cause to other members of the GlobalGiving community. Every dollar you gave changed a life in Tanzania AND amplified our message, mobilizing your fellow change-makers to contribute to our programs.
This year, we’re committed to making it even easier for you to make the biggest impact possible.
We’re calling 2017 ‘The Year of the Bonus’. We’re participating in more GlobalGiving bonus campaigns than ever before, giving you more opportunities to unlock matching funds and multiply your generosity. We’re going to share even more stories of change and hope, not only to show you your donations in action, but also to help you share your impact with friends, family and colleagues.
Together, we have already taken huge steps toward transforming the face of healthcare in Tanzania. We can’t wait to see how much further we can go in 2017.
With gratitude,
The Kupona Team
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