In the Autumn two of our Maternity Worldwide volunteers, Karen and Jeremy, who had spent a year at our programme in Ethiopia, decided to move to Addis Ababa after enjoying their time spent in the country previously.
As part of their current work they went to Mettu where they were able to meet up with our student midwife Lensa who was on her placement at Mettu Government Hospital at the time to see how she was getting on with the second year of her course. Karen and Jeremy were also able to give Lensa a laptop which had kindly been donated to Maternity Worldwide by a generous supporter.
Karen sent us this update on Lensa;
“Lensa is doing really well and is studying incredibly hard. Her ability to speak English is improving at a rapid rate, which will help her in her exams – as they are all in English. Interestingly, I met a few of her friends and they all had fairly poor English compared to her. Her exam results remain in the ‘As’, which is no surprise as she studies every day. She was doing her 3 week placement at the government hospital in Mettu whilst we were there, which was great as we were working in the fistula hospital in the same grounds. Lensa was able to come into theatre to watch Jeremy repair a fistula and he taught her a bit about that.
Every morning at the hospital, the doctors do a round and the midwifery students all have to answer various questions about the patients and their conditions and treatments. We were testing her on this and she was really well informed about things, Jeremy was impressed with her knowledge.
Lensa was really pleased with her laptop. She is going to be using it to write her essays and also to access the various documents that the teaching staff give her to read (vast amounts!).
She remains committed to returning to the rural area to work once she has completed her training but for now she is enjoying the challenges of learning lots of new things and is eager to do well in her exams.”
We would like to say a huge thank you for everyone who took part in Muffins for Midwives last May, the money raised will pay for the remainder of Lensa’s midwifery course as well as the full 3 year course for Robert in Malawi. If you would like to hold a cake sale, coffee morning or tea party to raise money to sponsor the training of midwives in Africa please click here for your free fundraising pack and more information.
We would like to say a big thank you to 
The event presented the strategy of the Ethiopian Government to improve maternal and newborn health; how the UK Government is supporting this and showcased the work of Maternity Worldwide and its partners over the past 11 years in Ethiopia.
A big thank you to Giant Shoreham bike shop who have kindly sponsored the T-Shirts for our Uganda Bike Ride which begins on Thursday 26th September.
Dr Karen Ballard, a senior lecturer in Women’s Health at the University of Surrey, writes about her year as a volunteer for Maternity Worldwide caring for pregnant Ethiopian women in a rural clinic.
As I squirted ultrasound gel on Balaynesh’s abdomen, she giggled nervously at the curious experience of being examined by a farengii, whose attempts to speak the language resulted in limited communication. Advances in technology allow us to bring portable ultrasound machines, not much larger than a mobile phone, to the most rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. They allow women, who do not even have access to a mirror, see images of their unborn baby.
Most rural health centres have limited supplies of water, electricity, equipment and drugs. They cannot provide caesarean sections or blood transfusions and staff are only trained to deal with simple childbirth complications. Being pregnant with twins means that Balaynesh is likely to require hospital care. Yet, her labour may commence at night when it is almost impossible to reach the hospital town. The transport costs will require her family to sell a coffee tree or a cow to raise the money; leaving their ability to provide for future family needs significantly reduced.
I was extremely lucky to have been given one valuable piece of advice from a friend in England who had also worked in Ethiopia. She told me that I would be confronted with vast numbers of people asking for help, and that I would certainly believe I could help many of them. However, she advised me to remain focused on what I was there for, and not to be tempted to take on everyone’s problems. Otherwise, she warned, I would achieve very little and end up exhausted and frustrated, running around trying to sort one problem after another.
I left Ethiopia with some incredibly fond memories of the people I encountered, many of whom have become treasured friends. They have welcomed me into their country and proudly shown me their way of life. They have invited me to eat in their homes and marked our friendship with coffee ceremonies. They have shown great courage and strength in dealing with their difficult lives, and their acceptance of adversity is remarkable. I recently visited Ethiopia for two weeks and was greeted by one of the nurses I used to work with, who had travelled on buses for two days to greet me. With so little, people can give so much.
On 12th May 2013 Save the Children launched their 14th annual State of the World’s Mothers report.
One of our trustee’s, Grace, is based in Zomba district, Malawi. On a recent visit to the UK she took a huge box full of knitted baby vests and blankets back with her along with some blood pressure monitoring machines. The vests and blankets are kindly donated by a wonderful team of volunteer knitters who regularly send us beautifully crafted items.
Here is a new mum in Pirimiti hospital who has just been given one of the beautiful knitted dresses. Many mothers can’t afford to buy extra clothes for their baby. At night time the temperatures can drop considerably so the vests and blankets help to keep babies warm at night.
