So Zambia Has Gone and Made Me a Beggar for a Good Cause

Hello friends and family!

It is with awkward pride and unbridled hope that I announce I am raising money for a project that I love. I cannot stress enough that you will be riddled with warm fuzzy feelings and tax deductions if you give to this project. So, if that is enough convincing and you need not read further visit this website and donate:

https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=14-611-005

If you need just a bit more info, here's where I break it down for you...

Helping Mothers in Need

SUMMARY

Conditions in rural Zambia make it difficult for mothers to receive care during pregnancy and delivery. Saving Mother’s Giving Life (SMGL) has trained community groups called Safe Motherhood Action Groups (SMAGs) to address mobilization and demand for services by encouraging women to deliver at clinics. Clinics and SMAGs (with support of the community) provide structures where pregnant women can stay at the clinic before their delivery date. These buildings make it easier and safer for mother and baby to access care when the time comes to deliver. These structures are paramount to encouraging skilled care among women in rural areas but many of them are incomplete or have fallen into disrepair. These impoverished communities have given of their time and resources to see that these structures are built but may not have the funds to finish or rehabilitate these shelters once problems arise. And that’s where you come in…

BACKGROUND

Kalomo District in Zambia’s Southern Province is a vast rural area in one of the world’s poorest countries. Housed within this district are 38 health facilities spread out over 15,000 square kilometers serving nearly 250,000 people.

These communities face innumerable challenges and overcome harsh conditions in daily living. Chief among these concerns is isolation and access to basic medical care. Because of these needs, Zambia has one of the highest rates of maternal and neonatal mortality in the world (440 deaths per 100,000 births and 39 deaths per 1,000 respectively). Due to isolated conditions and lack of knowledge concerning pregnancy care and delivery, well over half of all Zambian women deliver at home without skilled attendance during delivery.

SAVING MOTHERS, GIVING LIFE

In 2012, the Zambian Ministry of Health and US Government agencies like USAID, CDC and Peace Corps (along with multiple other partnering organizations) began an ambitious initiative to reduce Zambia’s maternal mortality by 50%. This program titled Saving Mothers, Giving Life (SMGL) addresses maternal and neonatal mortality in a number of areas from systems strengthening down to the community level. The primary intervention used to increase demand and access to care by women is the training of community led groups called Safe Motherhood Action Groups (SMAGs). Partner organizations and area health center staff train twenty community members per clinic area to form SMAGs. These groups are responsible for community outreach and public health campaigning on behalf of mothers and their families. During outreach the members teach women and men about family planning, antenatal care, warning signs, making birth plans, and the importance of coming to the clinic for delivery.

MOTHERS SHELTERS

Even with improved health messages and mobilization by SMAGs, women still must battle long distances to reach the clinic for delivery. Imagine being 8-9 months pregnant or in early labor and having to walk 10-50 kilometers to deliver your baby. Add to that poor road conditions and lack of emergency services like ambulances and you can see why some women opt to risk having a home delivery when their time comes. One way in which SMGL, SMAGs, and Rural Health Clinics attempt to circumvent issues of access is the building of Mother’s Waiting Shelters. These shelters are built on clinic compounds and house pregnant women for up to 2 months before their delivery insuring that they are near the facility during this critical time before the baby is born.

THE NEED FOR AIDE

As a Peace Corps Volunteer working with SMGL, I work with SMAGs to mentor and support their efforts in the community. After a lengthy needs assessment and discussions with SMAGs about the challenges they face, I soon discovered that those groups that did not have functioning shelters often suffered the most when encouraging women to come to the facility for delivery or attend antenatal care visits.

"We can only do so much. We have educated these women- they want to come to the clinic! But they will not stay here on the floor! Their homes are more comfortable. Our community has already given so much for this shelter but it is not enough to make it nice and now the termites have taken the walls. We can’t tell women to walk 40 kilometers when there is not a good place for them to stay. We need help!”

            -   Fellow Chilungwe, SMAG member (Dimbwe, Rural Health Clinic)*

Those groups who have low rates of maternal and neonatal death often site their mother’s shelters as the reason why women access the clinic.

“It is comfortable. Women can feel safe here even when the rains come. Their families can visit, so, they come well in advance and they benefit. We haven’t had a death since the mother’s shelter was built!”

           - Patience Chibwe, SMAG member (Simwatachela, Zonal Health Center)*

These accounts are also supported by ministry and clinic data which correlates that areas with uninhabitable or non-existent mother’s shelters have maternal and neonatal death rates that are 2-3 times higher than those with functioning shelters.

As a volunteer, I have the unique position to connect the needs of these SMAGs and communities to help them obtain the resources and skills they need to improve access to care for women. There are several facilities that could benefit from your support to see that their shelters are finished or restored but because grants through Peace Corps are limited, I have focused on three shelters that have shown the most need in terms of SMAG feedback and clinic delivery data. These Rural Health Clinics have highly committed and enthusiastic communities but need your help to fulfill remaining needs for their shelters.

GRANT AND FUNDRAISING

Each community will provide the man power to make improvements/start construction on these structures but this grant will help provide materials like cement, window panes, paint, beds, etc to make these mothers comfortable and safe. BUT this project would not be sustainable if we were only giving money, so to avoid problems of financing and upkeep in the future we are also providing Incoming Generating Activity (IGA) Training to these SMAGs. This training shows them ways of making money within their communities that will sustain itself for years to come (i.e. raising and selling chickens, investing and running a maize grinder, etc). So we are fulfilling an immediate need for mothers and providing a training that will help for years to come.

I hope to raise at least $5,000 USD for this project but the more that we raise the more facilities we can support! You may be asking- why are you raising money if this is a grant? Good question! The Peace Corps has several small grants that can be used by volunteers but construction projects are a perfect opportunity to involve friends, family, and organizations back home. This helps address the 2^nd Goal of Peace Corps which seeks to make Americans more aware of the culture and needs of my host country, Zambia. It also provides a handy website for you to submit donations and provides accountability and assurance that funds will be used appropriately- so you know your money is being spent directly in the communities that need it. Also, by making this a US government grant all donations are tax deductible!

https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=14-611-005

Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated not only by me but by the thousands of mothers that will utilize these facilities. Please feel free to share this information with any individual or group that might be interested!

Please contact me with any questions or concerns! I’d love to hear from you!

*Dimbwe’s Mother’s Shelter remained unfinished after the initial community drive and is now crumbling from termites.
*Simwatachela’s Mother’s Shelter has a larger community that was able to contribute more funds to its construction as well as partner organizations that saw that the structure was comfortable and complete.