Salute Women by Improving Maternal Health

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By: Samuel M. Gebru (@SMGebru) and Zewdy Awalom (@Zewdy)

March 8, 2012

Today is International Women’s Day, an opportunity for us to celebrate the women worldwide making a positive impact to our families and communities. A United Nations-recognized political awareness holiday, International Women’s Day is aimed at giving attention to the political, economic and social struggles women in our world still face while also celebrating their vast achievements.

Dedicating a day for women reminds us of the challenges women endure and the strength they have. On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2012, we would like to focus on the urgent necessity of our world to focus on improving maternal health.

One third of all births take place at home without the assistance of skilled birth attendants. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 536,000 women die annually due to the lack of proper maternal healthcare. Over 3 million stillbirths and 3.7 million newborn deaths occur each year. Tragically, 99% of these maternal and child deaths occur in developing countries like Ethiopia and the vast majority of these deaths are preventable.

At the Millennium Summit in 2000, 192 United Nations member states, including Ethiopia, adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration, pledging to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject poverty and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty.” Improving maternal heath, the fifth goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), includes achieving universal access to reproductive health.

Quality maternal health services are fundamental to achieving successful births. In developing countries, where the urban-rural divide is greater, rural women have even less access to proper maternal health resulting in even more deaths.

These largely preventable tragedies must be addressed through improving the quality of and expanding the access to healthcare and education. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), over 25,000 women die annually due to pregnancy-related complications in Ethiopia. More than 500,000 women suffer annually due to complications caused by pregnancy and childbirth.

The Ethiopian Global Initiative (EGI) is committed to improving maternal healthcare. EGI’s Midwives Scholarship Fund aims to fully fund the education of eight students at the Hamlin College of Midwives (HCM) in Ethiopia, a local private college accredited with the Ministries of Education and Health. HCM’s four-year programs grant students a Bachelor of Science in Midwifery. At the core of HCM’s work is the prevention of childbirth complications and deaths through education.

63% of illiterate young people globally, about 86,310,000 people, are women. Because many women are uninformed about their maternal health and legal rights these issues go unnoticed. By educating a new class of midwives in Ethiopia, HCM aims to improve the local healthcare workforce and keep Ethiopia’s human capital in country.

EGI aims to help women empower themselves. Educating women to become skilled midwives and deploying them to rural Ethiopia preventing childbirth complications and deaths is an enormous task that requires your generosity and support.

Join us and celebrate women daily. No woman should suffer during childbirth. Donate today and share our message with your friends.

Samuel M. Gebru is the Chairman and President of the Ethiopian Global Initiative. Zewdy Awalom is an up-and-coming R&B singer whose voice has been compared to that of Beyonce Knowles.

Childbirth Injuries and Midwifery: Speaking From the Heart

Doctors Catherine and Reginald Hamlin
during their early days in Ethiopia.

By: Abel Tadesse

March 10, 2011

March 8th is celebrated as International Women’s Day. Most of us celebrate the women in our lives daily. Whether it is calling our mothers to say thank you or expressing the love we have for our sisters, we all have different forms to show our appreciation to the women in our lives. As we celebrated and recognized women’s day, for many mothers in developed countries, pregnancy is the most exciting time as they look forward to growing life within their body and then bringing it to the world.

This is not the case in many developing countries like Ethiopia especially in rural areas where a mother-to-be can experience an agonizing weeklong labor all by herself. I recently watched a trailer for a documentary called A Walk to Beautiful where a woman expressed how her pregnancy, which led to a weeklong labor, ruined her marriage as it resulted in a childbirth injury called obstetric fistula. The husband noticed her condition, which includes loosing functions of the bladder, so he decided to leave her to marry another woman. It was unbearable to watch the complete trailer, and note this is not even the whole documentary! I kept on telling myself that these are the mothers and sisters of my own in Ethiopia. What was even worse about seeing the horrors of obstetric fistula is that this childbirth injury was eradicated from the U.S. in 1895.

EGI President Samuel M. Gebru (in suit) poses with Dr.
Catherine Hamlin (right) in August 2006 at the Addis
Ababa Fistula Hospital.

For me, understanding the condition of fistula really is an eye opener and I believe individuals like you and I can take actions together to eradicate this traumatic childbirth injury in Ethiopia as well as other developing countries. Using our own skills, we can make pregnancy and childbirth "a joyful experience" as Dr. Catherine Hamlin, founder of the Hamlin Fistula Hospitals of Ethiopia, defined it. For me, my action first started when I joined the Ethiopian Global Initiative, fully supporting the Midwives Scholarship Fund. The mission of the project is to improve access to healthcare education, specifically midwifery as it is found to be a sustainable solution to improve the areas of maternal and child health. The success of this program will help build the foundation stronger, and further increase the amount of Ethiopia’s healthcare professionals. The project is raising funds to sponsor eight women at the Hamlin College of Midwives in Ethiopia.

It may be difficult for one to fully commit to volunteering as we all have our own personal endeavors, but I am a strong believer that the smallest contribution counts for the success of the EGI Midwives Scholarship Fund. In the long run, the eradication of obstetric fistula, turning a woman's worst experience during childbirth to a joyful celebration, is a goal for us when each International Women’s Day comes by.

Just as I have joined, helping expand the Ethiopian Global Initiative’s mission in expanding education for health, I invite you and your friends to do so.

Visit the EGI Midwives Scholarship Fund webpage by clicking here. Abel Tadesse holds a Master in Health Sciences degree from George Mason University and is Project Manager of the EGI Midwives Scholarship Fund.