Healthcare to Save Mothers and Babies

"When I am asked what is the most important project that we fund, it is always difficult to answer. How do you choose between providing lifesaving goats milk for a mother who is too thin herself to feed her baby, a hand pump so that water is at hand for small children, or a midwife so that young mothers and their babies have medical help close by in their own village. It is almost impossible to prioritise, as all are desperately needed.  However, the philosophy of Kids for Kids is to prevent problems from becoming catastrophes. Can you imagine a greater catastrophe than a young girl suffering the pain of childbirth, and the older women in the village - untrained and with no knowledge of hygiene or sterilisation - telling her the baby is stuck? Somehow they have to get her to hospital across desert terrain, with no shade in the blinding heat. The baby stands no chance of surviving. If the mother does not die herself, fistula may be her best hope.  No-one can live with someone with fistula - double incontinence - in a country as hot as Sudan. "   Patricia Parker MBE 

We are proud to say that 37 young women from Kids for Kids villages have all graduated with honours in 2015 from the midwife training school that we funded in El Fasher, thanks to generous supporters. The training for a village midwife is arduous. Many of the volunteers will never have visited the regional capital.  It takes a progressive village leader to allow these young ladies to leave their village for 14 months to train. They do not return during this period. They live in a compound where their only relaxation is on a Friday when they go to the mosque and wash their clothes. Within weeks of arriving in El Fasher they will be assisting at births. Many have helped deliver healthy twins. The experience they gain during these 14 months is extraordinary but essential.  

Why do they do it? They do it because they are all altruistic, caring young women, who are determined to help women they know in their own communities and are brave enough to undertake the training. When they return to their village they will become one of the most respected people there.  Kids for Kids always funds the training of 2 village midwives in each community This is so they can support each other, sometimes in very difficult situations. There will be times when a friend whom they have known since childhood does not survive despite their skills. To have a colleague to support them is essential if they are not to suffer burnout.

The success rate of Kids for Kids midwives is extraordinary. In her first 12 months Halima delivered 800 healthy babies, 4 of whom were twins. Important too are the statistics that show that they have the authority to convince women to travel to El Fasher to the main hospital there if there is a risk of a difficult birth. This also has saved many lives. 

Please will you help us to train and equip the next team in 2016?  

$35 funds a food tray to keep food clean so that little ones do not become ill

$100 provides the kit a village midwife needs to help her work - including a small tin trunk to keep it safe

$230 funds a solar lantern to help with night-time deliveries - there is no electricity

$245 provides a strong crossbred donkey to enable a village midwife to get to her patients quickly (donkeys are the only transport)

$612 provides a donkey cart ambulance for emergency cases to get to hospital 

$3,050 funds a new midwife in a village

Thank you for your support.   

Links:

• Kids for Kids website for more information
• Join the conversation on Facebook