In sub-Saharan Africa, a woman’s risk of death during childbirth is 1 in 30, compared to 1 in 5,600 in the developed world1 . For many mothers, fear comes along with joy during pregnancy and birth. It is a fear women feel not only for themselves, but also for their children, since 1 in 9 will die before the age of 5 in sub-Saharan Africa2.
These statistics are difficult to fathom in a world where the resources and knowledge is available to prevent such tragedies, and Bread and Water for Africa® has been working since our founding in 1998 to overcome them. Last year, our partners’ programs in four countries reached tens of thousands of people who otherwise would have received no medical or maternal care at all. Ndegbormei Development Organisation, Faith Healing Development Organization, and Kamakwie Wesleyan Hospital – all in Sierra Leone – continue to specialize in infant, under-5, and maternal care, maintaining a long-standing partnership that began toward the end of Sierra Leone’s Civil War in the late 1990s.
You also have helped Bread and Water for Africa® continue our partnerships with the Kabwata Orphanage and Transit Centre in Zambia, Hope Services in Cameroon, and the Haramary University Hospital Health Center in Ethiopia. In FY 2012, we were able to assist these local initiatives with $14, 000.00 in cash grants and $8,099,664.00 in donations of medicine, medical equipment, medical supplies and hygiene items that allow these clinics to remain open and offer reliable services to mothers and families that would have limited or no medical access at all.
Our partners know that healthy children with healthy mothers that can care for them are an essential element of Africa’s future, and will be the foundation for advances in education and economic growth. That is why they specifically emphasize provision of care for these most vulnerable segments of the population, in the hope that the next generation will feel only joy, and never fear, with the birth of a new child.
1 – http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG_FS_5_EN_new.pdf
2 – http://www.childinfo.org/files/Child_Mortality_Report_2012.pdf
