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Reposted from Women Deliver.

“Women Bloggers Deliver” will award two female bloggers with a trip to Kenya to learn about clean water and women in development

Women Deliver, in partnership with Vestergaard Frandsen, announced today the launch of “Women Bloggers Deliver,” a competition that will send two female bloggers on a trip to Kakamega, Kenya to observe a unique public health campaign with a climate change component that will provide millions of girls and women with access to safe and clean drinking water. The winning bloggers will accompany community workers as they distribute LifeStraw® Family water filters to almost a million households. This important public health intervention will contribute significantly to health and development efforts that are transforming the lives of families and communities hard hit by the lack of clean water.

In April and May of 2011, LifeStraw® Family water filters will be distributed to approximately 90% of all households in the Western Province of Kenya in a groundbreaking program that links access to safe drinking water with low carbon development. The program, called “Carbon for Water,” will provide more than four million residents with quick access to safe drinking water at home. The program is led and solely funded by Vestergaard Frandsen (VF), a global company that specializes in complex emergency response and disease control textiles, including LifeStraw® Family. It is self-funded by VF and will be reimbursed by carbon financing.

“This competition will provide a unique opportunity for leading bloggers to travel to Kenya and observe the most important project yet to combine the power of climate change mitigation with public health,” said Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, CEO of the Group, Vestergaard Frandsen. “I’m sure the winning bloggers will have the experience of a lifetime and will share their knowledge and insights with a very wide and influential audience.”

For one week in May, from May 14 to May 22, the bloggers will travel through Kenya’s Western Province, all expenses paid, to research and write about the campaign and the women whose lives are being affected. In sub-Saharan Africa, many girls and women spend hours a day collecting water, often walking miles in extreme conditions and on dangerous roads to fetch water and wood for fuel. This is time that could be better spent in school, as one in three girls in sub-Saharan Africa does not attend primary school and misses out on the opportunity to build a better future for herself and her family.

“The huge challenges in sub-Saharan Africa—poverty, access to safe and clean drinking water, access to family planning, maternal mortality—can only be tackled if women are central to the conversation,” said Jill Sheffield, president of Women Deliver. “We hope that this competition will harness women bloggers’ energy and passion to showcase women as not only part of the problem, but part of the solution.”

To honor the bloggers’ work and the work of Women Deliver in raising the profile of women from this community, the Emusanda Health Center in Kakamega will receive a long sought-after maternity ward donated by Vestergaard Frandsen with contributions from the blogosphere.

To learn more and apply for the competition, visit this link: http://www.vestergaard-frandsen.com/women-bloggers-deliver/

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About Vestergaard Frandsen:
Vestergaard Frandsen is a European company specializing in complex emergency response and disease control products. The company operates under a unique Humanitarian Entrepreneurship business model. This “profit for a purpose” approach has turned humanitarian responsibility into its core business. Vestergaard Frandsen was founded in 1957 and has evolved into a multinational leader focused on helping to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. For more information please visit http://www.vestergaard-frandsen.com

About Women Deliver:
Women Deliver is a global advocacy organization that brings together voices from around the world to call for action for improved health and well-being for girls and women. Launched in 2007, Women Deliver works globally to generate political commitment and financial investment for fulfilling Millennium Development Goal #5 — to reduce maternal mortality and achieve universal access to reproductive health. Building from the groundbreaking conferences Women Deliver convened in 2007 and 2010, the initiative harnesses commitments, partnerships, and networks to help prevent the approximately 350,000 deaths of girls and women from pregnancy-related causes that occur every year. Women Deliver’s message is that maternal health is both a human right and a practical necessity for sustainable development. Invest in women—it pays. Visit http://www.womendeliver.org

Contact: Janna Oberdorf
info[at]womendeliver.org
+1 646-695-9124

        

this article was written by Ana Santos and was originally published in IRIN News

Photo: David Swanson/IRIN A pregnant woman at the Notre Dame Dulawan evacuation centre in Datu Piang, Mindanao

MALABON, 20 September 2010 (IRIN) – Ophelia has never had any formal training but has been delivering babies since she was 19. Now 52, she believes her years of experience qualify her to handle even emergency cases, including excessive bleeding and breach pregnancies.

“To stop bleeding, I pull out one hair from the mother’s head and put it in her belly button,” Ophelia said. “If she is having a hard time giving birth, I drip candle wax into a basin of water to see if someone has put a curse on her. If the candle drips fall together, I get a vision of who planted the curse.”

Asked how she was able to perform such interventions, she says, “I don’t know how I do it sometimes. I think it is the Lord that really gives me power. Once, a [baby's] foot came out first. I put it back in and massaged the stomach and turned the baby around.”

Ophelia is a traditional birth attendant (TBA), known in the Philippines as a “hilot”. According to the country’s latest National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS), an estimated six out of 10 births take place at home, many of them under the supervision of a TBA.

The NDHS also shows that only 44 percent of births occur in health facilities; 56 percent of deliveries are at home.

Remote communities or those affected by conflict often have no community health stations or permanent midwives, prompting many Filipino women to enlist the services of TBAs instead.

The personal touch

Photo: Ana Santos/IRIN In addition to delivering babies, hilots routinely perform massage to alleviate muscle pain

“Superstitious beliefs and untrained medical practices like putting [back] the foot of the baby expose the mother to infection and put both her and her baby at risk,” said Luzviminda Ranga, a licensed midwife in the municipality where Ophelia lives.

“I would say that our main competition to getting clients are the TBAs rather than hospitals,” Ranga said, noting that it was not just the financial aspect that made women prefer TBAs.

Magdalena Bacalando, who manages a maternity clinic in Malabon, says, “We charge about US$25 for normal deliveries, which is inclusive of vitamins for post-natal care. TBAs like Ophelia charge at least $50 for her services.” However, TBAs allow payment by instalment and provide a personal touch.

Junice Melgar, executive director of Likhaan Center for Women’s Health, told IRIN: “Admittedly, we health professionals are not taught to see our patients as our peers. The TBA can massage her patient; some are even known to feed them and clean up the delivery area. They care for women in a very humane way and healthcare providers are very impersonal compared to this. That kind of care will not be [provided] by a midwife.”

To address this aspect, Cynthia Fernandez-Tan, a trustee at the Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society (POGS), says the society and the Department of Health (DoH) were developing initiatives to encourage hospital delivery and foster a working relationship between midwives and TBAs.

“TBAs will track pregnancies since they are the ones most present in the communities. She will refer these cases to a midwife and assist as labour companions.”

Under the DoH’s Women’s Health and Safe Motherhood Project, TBAs will be included in a Women’s Health Team and given a monetary incentive for every pregnant woman they refer to a healthcare facility.

Maternal deaths

However, for many, such interventions come too late.

Cleotilde dela Cruz lost her daughter Olivia last year after she began haemorrhaging while delivering her 10th child. Olivia was 36 years old and had always given birth at home, under the supervision of Ophelia.

“Olivia already had one baby who died. She was warned it was dangerous for her to continue having children,” said the 60-year-old.

“I know Olivia’s dead, but sometimes I find myself cursing her for leaving me with her nine children,” she says.

According to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the maternal mortality ratio in the Philippines is 162 deaths per 100,000 live births – one of the highest in the region and equivalent to 11 women dying each day from pregnancy and childbirth complications.

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[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]