Recommitting to Haiti
Every Mother Counts is excited to announce that we’re giving another grant to Midwives for Haiti.We just wired the funds and we’re excited to announce that we’ve given our good friends at Midwives For Haiti, another grant! You raised $20,612 through our Crowdrise Challenge this last holiday season, and we added to it so that we could provide a total of $54,958 to help them build and operate a birth center and community clinic in the isolated rural community of Saltadere. In addition, we are providing $80,444 to support the training and education of the 17 members of the 2014/2015 class of midwives — a grant total of $135,402.
A woman’s chance of dying in Haiti from pregnancy and childbirth related complications is 1 in 83, largely because Haiti suffers from a critical shortage of skilled health workers. MFH teaches Haitian women and men midwifery skills in a one-year program of classroom instruction and hands-on clinical training. EMC funds help support teachers and preceptors and provide books, teaching aids, medical supplies and uniforms. The new students started classes this month and will graduate one year from now.
The community of Saltadere is currently served by MFH’s mobile clinic. It has such a high level of need for skilled care that it overwhelms the mobile clinic’s capacity to provide patient care each month. The grant will help renovate an existing building to get it ready to serve the community, and support staff and supplies for the birth center’s first year of operation. Once the Saltadere birth center and clinic is up and running, it will provide moms, babies and the broader Saltadere community with basic primary and maternal/neonatal health care.
MFH’s new lead teacher, Limone Clerveau, getting ready to teach about nutrition in pregnancy, with fresh fruits, vegetables, rice and millet she bought at the market.
Together EMC and MFH are working to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for all moms in Haiti. Stay tuned for regular updates and photos from the students and instructors!
