Amref Director General Dr Teguest Guerma says this initiative will increase the number of trained midwives and mobilise citizens to ensure that mothers get the basic medical care during pregnancy and childbirth/FILE
Amref Director General Dr Teguest Guerma says this initiative will increase the number of trained midwives and mobilise citizens to ensure that mothers get the basic medical care during pregnancy and childbirth.
“Mothers are the heart of communities. They hold families, communities and entire nations together. We must continue to ensure that they are well taken care of as they go through the important process of bringing new life into the world,” she said.
“A trained midwife can ensure that a mother and her baby survive. That is why we have decided to continue with this campaign, to ensure that we train as many midwives as possible.”
Guerma says the Stand Up for Africa Mothers campaign which aims to train 15,000 midwives in Africa by end of year to date has trained a total of 5,090 midwives in seven out of the 13 sub-Saharan counties.
“We must recognise that midwives are key to saving life, particularly in rural parts of the continent. This campaign sought to raise global awareness of the importance of midwives and to raise funds to train more of them,” she said.
Chase Group Foundation on Wednesday donated Sh30 million to support Amref Health Africa’s Stand Up for Africa Mothers campaign.
Speaking while presenting a cheque towards the initiative, Chase Group Foundation Chairman Parmain ole Narikae says that most cases of maternal mortality are due to inaccessibility to trained health care and functioning health facilities.
Narikae says emphasis on improving on maternal mortality and sexual reproductive health will go towards attaining the Millennium Development Goal 5.
“It is alarming and we need to emphasis on the need for stakeholders to collaborate to enhance maternal health and to use platforms such as this to work towards attaining the MGDs. Our commitment to continuously partner with Amref Health Africa and other stakeholders to improve maternal health care which has importance to the socio-economic development,” he said.
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