Dear Patient,
Today I would like to announce the donation of $25,000 to Midwives for Haiti, a non-profit dedicated to providing skilled maternity care to mothers in Haiti, the most dangerous country in the Western Hemisphere to give birth.
The donation acknowledges the work Midwives for Haiti is doing to increase access to care and end preventable maternal and infant deaths in Haiti. Due to geographic remoteness and socioeconomic status, many mothers in Haiti do not receive the care they require. In fact, only about 25% of births in rural Haiti are attended by a skilled provider.
In addition to the group’s donation, Physicians and Midwives will receive a visit from Midwives for Haiti’s Head Midwife and founder, Nadene Brunk, in April 2017 for a Q&A with the staff. During this visit, the group hopes to brainstorm further aid that can be provided to the people of Haiti.
Our goal is to develop a program that would allow us to take some profit and send it to Haiti. Our midwives could visit Haiti in an effort to educate the native Haitian midwives and physicians. We could help them set up a mobile prenatal clinic, or get a birthing center up and running. There are so many exciting avenues that would allow us to give back as a whole.
Midwives for Haiti founder, Nadene Brunk, started teaching Haitian nurses in 2003, but Midwives for Haiti officially reached non-profit status in 2006. The organization provides training for birthing professionals, and now the hospital they partnered with has 18 Skilled Birth Attendants. Each year, trainees of the program help to safely deliver over 2,200 babies. Midwives for Haiti continues to develop programs that help the cause, including the introduction of a Mobile Prenatal Clinic, an outreach program that reaches Haitian natives and allows them to get involved, a Postnatal Care program, and most recently, the opening of the Carrie Wortham Birth Center.
Sincerely,
Dr. Giammittorio
About Midwives for Haiti
Midwives For Haiti educates Haitian nurses to become Skilled Birth Attendants in order to scale access to midwifery care in Haiti quickly. MFH leverages international volunteers to support the didactic and clinical training of its students. The program has graduated seventy-one SBAs since 2006 and another seventeen students, the seventh class, will graduate in March 2015.
In addition to their education program and newly launched Postnatal Care Program, Midwives For Haiti is increasing access to critical maternal and infant healthcare by operating a Mobile Prenatal Clinic that provides maternal care to twenty rural villages in the Central Plateau. The organization also supports the maternity center at St. Therese Hospital, which is the site of their clinic training, by supplementing supplies and paying ten staff SBAs, all graduates of their program, to provide round-the-clock care to the women of Hinche, Haiti.
Contact:
Midwives For Haiti
7130 Glen Forest Dr Ste 101, Richmond, VA 23226
Summer Aronson, Communications Director
[email protected]
(804) 662-6060 x4105
http://www.midwivesforhaiti.org