Every Mother Counts Awards Inaugural Grants to Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation, Uganda & Midwives for Haiti
Every Mother Counts awards inaugural grants to Baylor-College of Medicine Children’s Foundation Uganda and Midwives for Haiti. Both grants will support life saving measures on the ground, with Baylor Uganda’s grant providing transport vouchers for women and Midwives for Haiti’s grant to cover the cost of training new students to become skilled birth attendants.
Grants Will Support Transport Vouchers, Allowing Women to Reach Facilities While in Labor, and Training of Skilled Birth Attendants
NEW YORK, NY — October 22, 2012 — Every Mother Counts (EMC), an advocacy and mobilization campaign focused on maternal health, today announced its first grant partners, Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation Uganda (Baylor Uganda) and Midwives for Haiti, marking a groundbreaking expansion for the organization. Both grants will support life saving measures on the ground, with Baylor Uganda’s grant of $41,146 providing transport vouchers for women in Uganda so they can reach health facilities while in labor and Midwives for Haiti’s grant of $54,000 covering the cost of training new students to become skilled birth attendants.
“The initiation of our grant program marks a huge step forward for our community as we look for ways to help reverse the tragedy of maternal mortality, and we only hope to increase our contributions as we grow,” said Erin Thornton, Executive Director, Every Mother Counts. “Partnerships with Baylor Uganda, Midwives for Haiti and similar organizations will connect our community to effective programs so that we can build an even stronger base of support for maternal health programs around the world.”
With the provision of approximately 13,500 transport vouchers, EMC’s support of Baylor Uganda breaks down one of the biggest barriers millions of women across the globe struggle to overcome when they need to reach a skilled provider during pregnancy or childbirth — distance. Many women around the world have to walk a minimum of 5 kilometers, often far more, just to seek basic care, even in labor. The investment in Baylor Uganda also supports the goals of the Saving Mothers, Giving Life partnership, for which EMC serves as a founding partner.
“This partnership with EMC is exciting news for Baylor Uganda and motivates me and our team to strive even harder to reduce the suffering of families because of a woman’s death from child birth,” said Dr. Adeodata Kekitiinwa,Executive Director, Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation Uganda. “The current maternal mortality of 438/100,000 is unacceptably high. This grant will help address one of the key barriers — transport — that forces women to deliver in their homes without being assisted by a trained health worker. As most deaths of women are around the first 24hours around birth, by assisting women to reach and deliver in health facilities I am optimistic that we will reduce these unnecessary deaths.”
The Midwives for Haiti grant was first publicly unveiled by EMC’s founder, Christy Turlington Burns on October 11, during the International Week of the Midwife. EMC’s support will cover the cost of training the entire January 2013 class of 15 midwifery students. This support will greatly raise the number of midwives available to assist women in pregnancy and childbirth in Haiti, significantly increasing the chances of survival for mothers throughout the region.
“Our partnership with EMC comes at a critical point in the organizational development of Midwives for Haiti,” said Terrie Glass, Board Chair and Strategic Coordinator, Midwives for Haiti. “In providing support for our core programmatic function, this grant will directly add to the impact of our program. We are long time admirers of EMC’s work and thrilled to be a part of their efforts to close the loop between advocacy and implementation.”
While Every Mother Counts will remain primarily focused on advocacy, the organization set out to raise funds from the public in 2012 through events, product partnerships and individual donations so as to directly link the public to life-saving efforts on the ground. As EMC expands, it will continue to find and support the best programs worldwide, helping to improve the lives of girls and women across the globe, and will remain committed to tracking those investments on its website, www.everymothercounts.org.
About Every Mother Counts
Founded by Turlington Burns in 2010, Every Mother Counts is an advocacy and mobilization campaign to increase education and support for maternal mortality reduction globally. Every Mother Counts seeks to engage new audiences to better understand the challenges and the solutions while encouraging them to take action to improve the lives of girls and women worldwide.
