Our Pregnant Women's Groups are Saving Lives
What have we been up to?
Our Programmes Team have been working on two main projects: Baby Boxes in Nairobi and Pregnant Women’s Groups (PWGs) in Meru County. The Baby Box initiative works to provide mums with important tools like mosquito nets for their newborns and information encouraging them to seek postnatal care. So far, 486 women have already enrolled on the programme and we’ve distributed 106 baby boxes to date.
Up in Meru, Jacob and his team have been working with local government health assistants and volunteers to roll out our Pregnant Women’s Groups, as we enter the final months of the project. So far, the PWG sessions have provided more than 5,000 pregnant women with life-saving information to guide them through their pre and post-pregnancy periods. We’re not exaggerating when we say life-saving...
Mercy's story
Mercy joined Team Mum’s Pregnant Women’s Group while pregnant with her 5th baby. The practical advice she learnt through Pregnant Women’s Groups helped save her life.
“Before I did not plan what I was going to do around birth, but this time I planned everything: I brought some food, I saved some money for the transport, I had also identified a vehicle that would take me to hospital.
As I was preparing to go to hospital, my baby came early and I had to give birth at home. I had prepared everything through, and this was so important. Immediately after delivering I was taken to the hospital. I lost a lot of blood and my haemoglobin levels had gone down. I had to have a transfusion quickly. If I didn’t go to hospital I probably would have died. Thanks to Team Mum I knew the importance of going to hospital.”
As the three-year Team Mum project draws to a close, we’re working hard on a sustainable exit strategy and identifying opportunities to continue this work. We cannot wait to share the final report with you in the near future.
We were on the TV and radio...
Child.org is getting famous! First Jacob, our Project Manager in Meru, featured on Meru’s local radio twice. This meant reaching a potential audience of over 145,000 people - wowzer. Later, Weru TV broadcast two documentaries about the PWGs, with the potential of reaching 2 million viewers. Reaching this many people is fantastic as Cherio, our Programme Manager, explains it works "towards normalising conversations around maternal health. In the foreseeable future, pregnancy will no longer be just a woman's issue that can only be talked about in the 'kitchen' as previously thought."
The UK team flew to Kenya!
You may have seen something else exciting on our Instagram… the Kenya and UK Child.org teams were united for the first time since the pandemic! Marti, Cherio, Lucy N, Clare, Lucy J and I spent an intensive and productive week together in Nairobi. We looked back on what makes Child.org brilliant, as well as looked ahead to how and where we can continue to spark progress in maternal and child health (and yes, we’ve got big plans).
How can you get involved?
Not to brag but Child.org has some pretty incredible fundraising events that will help us take our programs to the next level… but we really need your help to raise as much as possible. Our festival volunteering service Charity Concierge is attending three festivals this summer: Latitude, Camp Bestival Dorset and the brand new Camp Bestival Shropshire. Signing up is not only an awesome way to spend a weekend, but would also be major in supporting Child.org and our work in Kenya.
Don’t forget that Ride Africa is also back and this year the route is more epic than ever. Is signing up even a question?
There is always more you can do to support our work so get in touch if you would like to know more.
Chat soon!