Funding to reduce deaths of mothers and newborn babies
5 Dec 2014 11:02 AM
Initiatives to reduce needless deaths of mothers and their newborn babies are prominent in today’s International Communities awards by the Big Lottery Fund.
Among the work of 12 UK-based organisations being funded today through a £5.7 million share out is Health Poverty Action’s project aimed at reducing the loss of mothers and newborn babies within the San population in Namibia.
The project has been awarded £406,472 from the Fund to help more than 16,500 indigenous San people, traditionally hunters and gatherers in Tsumkwe - a geographically remote area which government health system struggles to reach. The majority of San in Tsumkwe live more than 80 kilometres away from any health facility.
Health Poverty Action will work to ensure San communities benefit from improved health, increased access to maternal and neonatal health services, improved accountability on part of the Ministry of Health and Social Services towards health services for San communities and long-term improvement in services through advocacy initiatives.
The funding will train traditional birth attendants in identifying high risk pregnancies and obstetric emergencies and will undertake new roles as health promoters, encouraging and accompanying expectant mothers to a health facility in emergencies. Teachers will be trained in reproductive health and family planning. Community workers in areas with mobile phone coverage will be provided with credit to phone ambulances and donkey cart ambulances will be purchased in areas without mobile coverage.
Tadesse Kassaye, Africa Programmes Director for Health Poverty Action: “Both men and women in focus discussion groups have explained that women in labour deliver at home with the help of a friend, family member, or traditional birth attendant. When obstetric emergencies occur, communities have described that the husband has to walk up to one day to reach the main road where there is a phone service. There they can wait for between an hour and 24 hours for the ambulance to arrive. When this happened to a woman one village, with the ambulance arriving more than a day later, the woman died in the ambulance.
“We will work with Namibian Planned Parenthood Association in Tsumkwe to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality among 16,600 marginalised indigenous San and their neighbours.”
Another project to increase maternal and infant survival rates has been awarded £484,871. Feeds the Minds will use the funding to increase the knowledge, understanding and training leading to improved community prevention as well as the uptake and quality of available healthcare services in the Makwanpur district of Nepal. The project will introduce a structured health education programme to enable women and young girls to understand risk factors in pregnancy, childbirth and the care of infants. Seventy-five women’s health committees will be established consisting of local women drawn from different sections of the community including farmers, traders, labourers, religious groups and people with different levels of education. The work will indirectly provide health information and support to nearly 26,000 people.
Vulnerable women working in the jute supply chains in Bangladesh will benefit from a £492,963 grant to Traidcraft Exchange. Jute is an affordable natural fibre harvested from plants and used to produce threads and cloths. The funded project will address the working conditions, limited income and discrimination faced by workers across Faripur and Jessore. The project aims to create an environment in which women are able to negotiate better terms for work, fair wages and improved access to support and services.
Women farmers and their dependants will also benefit from a £389,831 grant to the Fairtrade Foundation for a project within the Kabngetuny and Kapkiyai cooperatives in West Kenya. Improved farming practices will be delivered through training, leading to increases in crop yields and improved livelihoods. In the Kabngetuny cooperative women have established the Kabngetuny Women in Coffee Association and they will receive training to improve farming and environmental practices and help them earn an independent income from farming.
Trocaire receives £499,964 to address gender discrimination in land and resource rights in Nicaragua. The project, operating in Nueva Segovia, Matagalpa, Chinandega, Madriz, Leon and Masaya, will improve the quality of life for vulnerable and disadvantaged rural women and their families who lack access to land. They will be supported to identify land with the best conditions and to adopt better production methods to improve the quantity, quality and variety of crops, using sustainable agricultural practices that are resilient to climate change. This will be delivered through practical workshops, educational materials, community exchange sessions and the introduction of drip irrigation systems and water and soil conservation activities.
Peter Ainsworth, Big Lottery Fund Chair, said: “I am delighted that we are able to support UK charities which are helping to deal with some of the problems faced by people in real and immediate need. Long term solutions will be harder to find and we are looking carefully at how our funding may help. Any grant making organisation must respect and understand the communities which they aspire to assist.”
Other UK-based organisations receiving funding:
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Organisation
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Location
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Award
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Aim
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Y Care International
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Haiti
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£500,000
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To provide young men and women living in extreme poverty with vocational skills
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Ecologia Youth Trust
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Myanmar
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£485,746
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Eco-farming and social enterprise training for young people
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Concern Universal
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Ghana
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£477,272
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Entrepreneurial development of farmers
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Care International UK
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Ghana
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£453,073
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To improve livelihoods of rural women farmers
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Farm Africa
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Tanzania
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£489,597
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To support farmers grow high quality cash crops
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APT Action on Poverty
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Sierra Leone
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£498,183
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Employment and enterprise training of young men and women
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Renewable World
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Nepal
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£499,688
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To improve access to sustainable water resources
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Website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
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Notes to editors:
• The Big Lottery Fund is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised by the National Lottery.
• The Fund is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since its inception in 2004 it has awarded close to £6bn.
• In the year ending 31 March 2013, 28% of total National Lottery revenue was awarded to projects. Since the National Lottery began in 1994, £32 billion has been raised and more than 450,000 grants awarded.