AMREF Commends Prime Minister Harper’s Focus on Saving Mothers and Newborns
(February 8, 2010) AMREF would like to commend Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s recent announcement that decreasing maternal and child mortality rates will be a top priority in the upcoming G8 meetings in Canada this June.
“Maternal mortality is the most drastic health inequality in the world today,” says Dr. John Nduba AMREF’s Director of Reproductive and Child Health. “We hope the Prime Minister’s recent announcement will translate into saving mothers and children from unnecessary death.”
Every year 280,000 mothers in Sub-Saharan Africa die unnecessarily for want of simple, affordable medical care.
A woman in Africa has a one in sixteen chance of dying in childbirth compared to a woman in Canada who has a one in thirty thousand chance.
But research shows access to trained midwives with equipped health centres nearby will save 80% of mothers at risk.
“What women in the developed world take for granted - skilled midwives, an operating room if necessary and antibiotics – these apparently basic things are regarded as great luxury in Africa,” says Dr. Nduba.
AMREF is optimistic that the Canadian government will mobilize other G8 governments to improve maternal and child health by supporting initiatives training health workers across Africa.
Read Prime Minister Harper’s entire statement ‘G8 Agenda: Focus on Human Welfare.’
For more information contact:
Melanie Sharpe
Communications Coordinator
AMREF Canada
(416) 961-6981
msharpe@amrefcanada.org
AMREF’s Work Saving Mothers and Newborns
AMREF is Africa’s most experienced and respected health development organization in the world. Founded in East Africa in 1957, AMREF is the only organization in Africa that has trained health workers for over fifty years.
In the last ten years AMREF has trained over 20,000 midwives in Sub-Saharan Africa. An AMREF trained midwife increases the chance of a mother surviving childbirth by six times.
Find out more about AMREF’s work saving mothers and newborns.
AMREF works in partnership with government and health departments and other NGOs, our impact is long-lasting and cost-effective.
To help reduce maternal deaths please donate today.
