Stand Up for African Mothers

Americans certainly get fired up about the Oscars, the Golden Globes and Grammys. Every year, several awards are given to recognize the accomplishments of celebrities, actors, singers, athletes and entertainers. But what about the REAL people who don’t just play a doctor or nurse on TV?  The ones on the frontlines who are changing and saving lives every day?

This year people who rarely receive recognition or accolades are being honored – health workers around the world – with a REAL Award. 

According to the Frontline Health Workers Coalition and Save the Children, founders of the REAL Awards, they are a ‘first-of-its kind awards platform designed to develop greater respect for and appreciation of the life-saving care provided by health workers around the world'. The objective of the REAL Awards is to demonstrate the universal and urgent need for more trained, caring health workers on the frontlines. By some estimates, the world is short more than five million health workers including one million frontline health workers. Existing health workers are often overworked and under-appreciated.  REAL Awards should remind the public that people everywhere depend on health workers every day’.

At AMREF, we were thrilled to learn that one of the thousands of health workers we train or whose skills we upgrade through our eLearning, mHealth or onsite programs, was recently selected to receive one of the first, global REAL awards for the work they do as a REAL person on the frontlines of health care.

Esther Madudu, an AMREF-trained midwife working in rural Uganda in a remote health center, was presented last week with a REAL Award to celebrate and honor the life saving work she performs day in and day out.

In a small, poorly equipped health center, often under harsh conditions, Esther and her one midwife colleague are among the few skilled and trained professionals able to deliver babies and look after Moms who come not only from the immediate area, but often walk for miles from surrounding villages. 

This past week though, Esther’s health center was a place of celebration and support for frontline health workers.  The Ugandan Minister of Health herself, the Hon. Dr Christine Ondoa, presented Esther with her REAL Award which was presided over by Uganda’s Deputy Minister of Health and AMREF’s own Country Director in Uganda, Dr Abenet Berhanu, along with our Deputy Country Director, Dr Susan Wandera.   There were also a number of individuals from AMREF’s senior management team who attended the event, including many representatives of regional and local district government offices, with whom AMREF Uganda works hand-in-hand to implement our programs. 

The REAL Awards celebration in Uganda last week was just that – a lot of dancing, refreshments and overall jubilation to pause and take a moment to honor and celebrate frontline health workers everywhere whose dedication and commitment to their work is literally life-saving.

Links:

• AMREF USA's Website

We are happy to report back that under AMREF's Stand Up for African Mother's campaign, 2,576 new midwives have been trained. This means that up to 1,288,000 more mothers in sub-Saharan Africa can recieve the care they need while giving birth and during pregnancy.  

Women die needlessly of conditions that would be easily treatable if trained staff were available. Women often travel for miles to reach a trained midwife, by foot or on the back of a bicycle, only to die or to lose their child on the way.

Since 2010, AMREF has made a conscious decision to channel its energies into maternal and child health interventions and take the lead in moving the continent towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Although recent evidence suggests global reduction in maternal mortality, AMREF’s view is that this is still a major and present problem in sub-Saharan Africa. We believe that every year, more than 200,000 women die in this region during pregnancy and childbirth for lack of simple, affordable and reachable medical care. Those most affected are women in the remotest and poorest places, where there is little or no access to qualified health personnel and well equipped facilities. As a result, one in every 31 women in the continent is at risk of dying in childbirth, compared with one in every 30,000 in Europe.

Most of these deaths are easily preventable, as they are mainly caused by insufficient care during pregnancy and delivery. Another 15 per cent are as a result of complications that could be taken care of in facilities with emergency obstetric care services. What women in the developed world take for granted – skilled midwives, an obstetrician and operating theatre if needed, and the antibiotics and drugs to ensure that should complications arise, the mother is rapidly brought back to good health – are regarded as great luxuries in Africa.

With all its programs of midwives training, AMREF is working to ensure that no mother dies when giving life. The organization aims to train 15,000 midwives from now to 2015 to contribute towards reduction of maternal mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa by 25%.