As many countries will be celebrating Mother’s Day this weekend, this week’s SoroptiVoice blog looks at a  project to promote maternal health in Gambia.  Over 60% of the 1.7 million population in the West African country live in extreme poverty. The risk of a pregnant woman or girl dying from complications of her pregnancy or giving birth to her baby is staggering: one pregnant woman or girl out of every 49 will die and for every death, another 30 women and girls are left disabled or seriously injured (MCAI). 

Rita Allen, a member of SI Newtownabbey and District in Northern Ireland (UK) for 15 years, writes about the SIGBI Federation’s BIG (Birthing in Gambia) project, a partnership with  international medical charity Maternal and Childhealth Advocacy International (MCAI).

I have been employed as a Health Visitor for twenty nine years so maternal and child health is of particular interest to me. I am the liaison between our Federation, which is SIGBI, and MCAI.

SIGBI launched the partnership with MCAI at the Federation Conference in Brighton in October 2011—it is a three year Project and we are now at the half-way point. Early this year the Partnership was renamed ‘The BIG Project’, BIG being an acronym for Birthing in Gambia.

We proudly say we are a Global Voice for Women and that we are committed to education and leadership. We are determined to EDUCATE, EMPOWER, AND ENABLE and our support for the work of MCAI contributes to this aim.

We are now half-way through the Project and to date, £15,000 of the money raised  has gone towards renovating and extending a 10-bedded labour ward at Brikama Hospital, in a semi-rural area of the Gambia. This work was necessary as three times more women have delivered there over the past six years due to improved quality of care but the facility was becoming too cramped and crowded. The new ward still needs to be adequately equipped.

The next target for fundraising is the maternity unit and labour ward at Essau Hospital, at the other side of a 7 mile estuary .This work will require £20, 000 as the current facilities are unfit for purpose. Work has already started using local builders.

In order to maximise involvement of Clubs, 20^th July 2013 has been designated as a Day of Action for The BIG Project. All SIGBI Clubs are encouraged to organise a fund-raising activity—to this end several Regions and some countries have appointed Ambassadors to aid the flow of information.

More about the BIG project on SIGBI website

Read about Birthing in Pacific maternal health project in Papua New Guinea