L-R: Dr. Teguest Guerma, director general of AMREF
By Isseu Diouf Campbell
The African Medical and Research Foundation, the largest African-led health development organization on the continent, recently launched in New York the Stand up for African Mothers campaign to train 15,000 African midwives by 2015, save the lives of women and help reach millennium development goals.
According to the organization 200,000 women die every year in Africa due to complications during pregnancy and child birth. Meanwhile, one skilled midwife is able to provide care for 500 mothers every year and safely deliver 100 babies.
To help reduce maternal mortality, Dr. Teguest Guerma, director general of AMREF encourages supporters to sign the online petition for the symbolic nomination of AMREF trained Ugandan midwife, Esther Madudu for the 2015 Nobel Prize and donate to the organization.
She said, “finding an expert from the West, [and] make him come and go back is not efficient. Charity starts at home and the time when we just sit and wait for the West to raise money is over. These women are dying because they don’t know, because they live far and the not trained can’t deliver their baby.”
For more information, visit amref.org.
Photos of the event
