26th March 2014
It has begun! EMBRACE intends to get out into communities to draw women into empowering community-based groups whose role will be to implement sustainable change, development and education, designed especially to reduce the death rates of mothers and children.
In order to achieve this we need to map the territory: partly so that we know where the mothers and children are, and partly so that subsequently we can use the names of the hamlets and villages in the hospital records, and in that way measure the response to EMBRACE.
Thanks to the generosity of individuals, as well as the Diocese of Worcester and the charity ARCAID, we have now been able to begin.
Here is the recent post on the hospital's Facebook page* by Dr Sion Williams, who is spearheading the project:
Putting maternal health on the map- Berega is working with Google to save mothers and babies.
In the catchment area of Berega Hospital 1 woman dies for every 100 giving birth. We have a great team of obstetricians and midwives who are desperate to help these women. But before we can reach out to them we must first find them.
No good maps exist of the tangled motorbike tracks and sporadic hamlets from which labouring mothers travel from when deliveries go wrong. Today we started an innovative new project with Mission Morogoro, Hands 4 Africa, Ammalife and Google Maps to accurately map these distant settlements. We are visiting settlements by motorbike, recording coordinates, and hearing the stories of the most important people- the remarkable mothers who brave childbirth in a mud house, by kerosine lamp light, hours from medical help.
The battle against maternal mortality starts with finding, listening and working with these women. Only then can we bring these communities into the fold of the hospital, working with them as equal partners. But ultimately it starts with the map.
Pictured: project technician Abdallah Mondo records the coordinates of Kiegea village. Last year his first son was born safely in the hospital and he is committed to helping other women do the same.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Berega-Hospital/185336328323947
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