Thanks, Stacey, for getting this started. Savant, indeed!

People are very generous, crocheting hats and giving money to help us work in Sierra Leone to create a midwifery and health educator training program. Sierra Leone has the world’s worst maternal mortality rate: about 2% of women die in childbirth. As most women have about 6 pregnancies, their odds of death are bad. Women’s life expectency is about 42 years – can you imagine? By the age of 30, their health is beginning to fail. So we want to improve maternal and neonatal health, to keep these folks alive and healthy.

Because some of the things we need, like needles, sutures, and medications, are restricted, gifts of money help a lot. Also, we can get instruments like hemostats and umbilical scissors cheaper through some of our contacts.

The wheels are turning. We are creating our lists of questions for people like the local political and religious leaders, the traditional birth attendants, and the women themselves. We want to create programs to train midwives and community health educators that are tightly knit to the needs of the community. This includes cultural needs as well as skills and knowledge.

We’re thinking that we can go back in early summer 2007 to pilot parts of the program, then again in December 2007 to begin implementation. Implementation will require at least two people on site full time. So we’re gathering names of folks to work 3-12 month tours as either teacher/preceptor or administrator/program manager. Over the next few years, we’ll prepare local women to take over the teaching and management of the program, then MOMS will go onto other areas.

We are so excited about this, we tend to blather on. Then we’ll be struck by some idea – ohmigosh, I need some coolmax undies – and panic! Preparing for an undertaking like this is amazing. I’ve done dozens of training needs assessments on all kinds of subjects in my professional career, but never have I cared so much about the people who will ultimately benefit – the women and babies.

Let me know if you have ideas for helping!

Thanks so much

Trish