AMREF and Graca Machel Mandela launch global campaign to ‘Stand Up for African Mothers’ Hot

TEST Embargoed till 23rd May 2012

Today in London, AMREF, Africa’s largest health charity, launches its first global campaign, Stand Up for African Mothers. AMREF believes in a future where no woman should die giving birth; a future where African women have access to at least basic health care during pregnancy and childbirth, wherever and whenever they need it. The global campaign patron is Mrs Graca Machel Mandela. In Africa, 200,000 mothers die each year in pregnancy and child birth.

AMREF’s ‘Stand Up for African Mothers’ campaign aims to train an additional 15,000 midwives in Africa by 2015 which will contribute to reducing maternal deaths in Africa by 25%. A skilled AMREF-trained midwife can care for 500 women a year including the safe delivery of 100 babies.

The healthcare that women in the developed world take for granted – skilled midwives, an obstetrician, an operating theatre, sterile and equipped with the right tools and treatment, should complications arise – are all great luxuries in Africa.

As a result, one in 39 women are at risk of dying in childbirth or pregnancy compared to one in every 30,000 in Europe.

Women in poor and remote communities, far from the nearest health services are most at risk and young women and girls are in the most danger. In many communities, girls still marry when they are very young and contraceptive advice is poor or non-existent. Many of the worst complications in pregnancy are suffered by teenage mothers – giving birth is a physically traumatic experience for a girl whose body is still developing.

The deadline set by the United Nations for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is just round the corner, yet Africa is very far from meeting many of the health-related targets. MDG 5 which aims to improve maternal health is way off track. Only 2% of current development aid spending is focused on maternal and child health. Yet investing in women and their health strengthens families, communities and countries. Family budgets, local productivity, and national wealth flourish where maternal health is prioritised.

Dr Teguest Guerma, Director General of AMREF, who is in London to launch the campaign said,
“African women are at the centre of the social and economic development chain. The death of a mother while giving birth is a big setback for African society. Through the training of more midwives, AMREF is helping to deliver an immediate, sustainable solution. A healthy Africa needs healthy mothers, and African mothers need African midwives. If we are able to tackle the health issues facing women and children, we will have taken a very big step in improving the health of the whole community and the entire African continent”

Global Campaign patron, Graca Machel Mandela said “I am thrilled to be part of this very important initiative, which contributes to the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of reducing the maternal mortality in Africa. Of all the goals, this one is the most shamelessly lagging behind. Let’s work together to reverse the situation and make childbirth a matter of joy.”

This critical campaign will be launched by Dr Teguest Guerma and Her Excellency Mrs Joan Rwabyomere, High Commissioner for Uganda in the UK. Mrs Rwabyomere will be adding her experienced, committed and passionate voice to the call to Africans in the Diaspora in the UK to ‘Stand Up for African Mothers’ now.


NOTES TO EDITOR –

1. To interview Dr Guerma please contact Tanya White, Client Accounts Assistant (press& comms) on 0208 555 2200 or tanya@richvisions.co.uk

2. For more information please contact, Christine Kaleeba, Communications Assistant AMREF UK on 0207 269 5520 or c.kaleeba@amrefuk.org

3. AMREF (The African Medical and Research Foundation) is Africa’s largest health not-for-profit organisation run for Africans by Africans. Headquartered in Nairobi, and founded as the Flying Doctors Service of East Africa in the ‘50s.

4. AMREF is a uniquely African organisation, which runs 145 health programmes a year across the Eastern, Horn, Western and Southern regions of the continent.

5. In 2011, AMREF brought better health to over 12 million of the most marginalised and vulnerable people across Africa.

6. AMREF UK launches ‘Stand Up for African Mothers at One Aldwych, London on Wednesday 23rd May.

About Teguest

Dr Teguest Guerma is an Ethiopian national who has worked in public heath for 26 years, 21 of which she spent at the World Health Organisation (WHO). Beginning her career as a medical practitioner in Burundi in the mid-1980s, Dr Guerma has been involved in the fight against AIDS throughout her career, including as the Associate Director of HIV/AIDS for the WHO where she co-led the 3x5 initiative.

Dr Guerma became the first African woman to lead the African and Medical Research Foundation, Africa's leading health charity, in 2010. Her experience in global public health has greatly added to AMREF's already formidable reputation as a leading African health and development organisation. Under her leadership AMREF is driving forward a strategy that maximises our unique position, strengths, expertise and access to African communities and African Ministries of Health to ensure we deliver our vision of a healthy Africa that fulfils its potential. AMREF: Africa's health in Africa's hands.