#SaveAMum initiative: Supporting today’s mother to secure tomorrow’s future

The measure of a true society is found in the barometer of how we treat the women and children of our society. This is a group of society that is normally at the brunt of anything violent, desolate and neglected. A society that defends, protects and nurtures its women and children is a society that is keen about its future. Chase Foundation Group has espoused its role in creating value and purpose in a society where it operates in to show that its kind and nature of business is here to stay and hence the need to protect the future through the aura that is mothers.

In a country where healthcare for women is a big challenge because of limited infrastructure and daunting purchase power, millions of mothers go into child birth with certainty of death if nothing is done to alleviate their situation. Any expectant mother deserves obstetric care and this is something that is alien to majority of women. This is why every effort must not be spared to ensure that all mothers receive the best. The best way to have a good future is to invent it and we can invent one by securing the health of today’s mothers.

The Chase Group Foundation #SaveAMum walk will on the 28th of March be held at the Ngong Road Forest Sanctuary and is expected to bring together over 3,000 participants. This is walk of purpose and deliberate intention to invent the future by securing today’s mothers to have a safe and clean child birth experience.

The walk is in support of the Stand Up for African Mothers initiative by AMREF which seeks to train 15,000 midwives by 2015 therefore reducing maternal mortality by improving access to reproductive health services. The walk seeks to raise money towards this noble initiative and train sufficient midwives to adequately tend to the mothers in rural Kenya and Africa as a whole.

Since inception, the Stand Up For Mothers Initiative has trained over 650 midwives in Kenya and 4000 in Africa. Most of the midwives that have been trained have been attached to a health institution in various counties. Once trained, a midwife is able to look after 500 mothers every year and safely deliver 100 babies. Statistics show that approximately 1.5 million African children are left motherless each year while over 40% of African women do not receive pre-natal care, and more than half of all deliveries take place at home without medical assistance. This support will provide women of rural Kenya with pre and post natal care, a necessity that has previously not been available to them.

It is estimated that there are 30,000 midwives in Kenya but only 15,000 practicing. This is a worrying statistic that needs to change. The ratio of nurse midwives to the population in Kenya is 1:1300. In addition, according to the Kenya Demographics study released in 2008-2009, the leading areas in maternal deaths are Nyanza followed by Coast and then North Eastern. It is areas like those highlighted that the initiative seeks to train midwives.

In 2012, The Chase Group Foundation entered into a 3 year partnership with AMREF to support the Stand Up For African Mothers Initiative. In order to gain public awareness of this cause, The Chase Group Foundation hosted the first fundraising walk in February of 2013. This walk along with the support of the public worked to reaffirm the Foundation’s position in the provision of maternal care to the women on Kenya. This is walk that will definitely challenge every single Kenyan person with the ability to walk, to make that conscious decision to walk in order to secure the life a future president, doctor, engineer, nurse or entrepreneur. This is something that must eat at our soul if we do not take part in it.