Happy Mother’s Day!
What a great day to honor the beautiful mothers in our lives!
Did you know?
Although there are different reports about who started Mother’s Day, it is recorded that the founder of the day in the United States was Anne Jarvis. She was West Virginia native who started clubs to teach working mothers how to take care of their children. After her mother died, she planned the first official celebration in May 1908 and later fought to have the day added to the nation’s calendar. Her efforts proved successful in 1914, when president Woodrow Wilson officially signed the second Sunday of May as Mother’s Day on the national calendar!1
Our work with Mothers
Since 1983, Impact Global Health Alliance has partnered with communities to save the lives of mothers and children in communities that have the highest maternal mortality rates in the world; communities where childbirth is a matter of life or death. We have worked hand-in-hand with local partners to reach more than 1.4 million people in impoverished communities across the globe. Through the use of a 3-tiered Community-Based, Impact-Oriented approach, we provide health education, health access, and community empowerment to save the lives of the women we serve.
Health Education
Preventing poor outcomes and diseases before they even begin is essential to optimal health outcomes. In the case of mothers, prevention involves educating them about topics such as contraceptives, breastfeeding, signs of a normal pregnancy, benefits of health-facility delivery, and infection control. Mothers participating in our programs are split into groups of about 10-12 mothers that meet on a biweekly basis to learn about topics relevant to the improvement of their health and that of their children. In the past year alone, health education contributed to a substantial reduction of the maternal mortality rate in Guatemala and Kenya. Prevention is Key!
Health Access
Women who live in remote parts of the world are less likely to have access to maternal health services because of the small number of skilled-workers and health facilities available. This places them at a higher-risk of experiencing complications and death related to delivery in sub-optimal locations such as their homes.2 With this knowledge in mind, Impact Global Health Alliance ensures that mothers in the communities we serve have access to clinics that are staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and provide quality, timely, and culturally appropriate services. In the past year alone, we delivered 580 healthy babies!
Community Empowerment
None of our programs begin without first establishing a relationship with the community we plan to serve. We recognize that the community has the most knowledge about the culture, disease and death contributors, and health patterns in their area. Therefore, they must be involved in every phase of the program in order to ensure long-term change and sustainability. Our programs are successful because we first seek to understand, then to be understood!
Call to Action
As you celebrate your mother this year, we invite you to think about health education, health access, and community empowerment. You may not be able to take a flight to Guatemala or Kenya, but you can support our efforts and ensure that we reach more mothers in 2019 and beyond.
Why not honor your mother today by giving the gift of life to another mother – by saving a life?
Donate Now
A partnership with Impact Global Health Alliance Global is an investment in stronger communities around the globe; creating better lives through better health!
References
- https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/mothers-day
- https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/maternal-mortality
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