Established in 2002 by our Founders, Adrian Brown & Shane Duffy, Maternity Worldwide has been the result of combining the ambitions and frustrations of a small group of professionals who share a great enthusiasm to improve obstetric care for women and reduce maternal mortality in developing countries.
In 2002 Maternity Worldwide was invited by Adventist Health International (AHI) to help develop maternity services for Western Ethiopia. Maternity Worldwide has been responsible for running the delivery unit in a new hospital in Gimbie, Western Ethiopia which opened in August 2003. We provided skilled maternity staff and have established a fund to help those least able to pay for care.
In 2005 the award of the Big Lottery Fund grant allowed us to further improve maternal health services in the whole Gimbie Province. We achieved this through setting up four rural clinics; improving communication between clinics; employing additional healthcare practitioners; expanding the ‘women’s empowerment and education’ groups to include 40 kebeles (villages) in Gimbie province; commencing income generation projects linked to animal husbandry; and supplying further equipment for the care of maternity patients at Gimbie Adventist Hospital.
The West Wollega Strategy aims to bring improved maternity services to the entire West Wollega Region. We are seeking funds to implement this via our ‘West Wollega Appeal’. This expansion of the Gimbie Project to include 3 additional hospitals (comprehensive emergency obstetric care centres) and associated rural clinics (basic emergency obstetric care centres) and improved communications and community development would allow a population of nearly five million people to have access to improved maternity services. Extension of our project to the rest of West Wollega will be underpinned by continual evaluation of our existing activities to ensure that future services are as effective and accessible as possible, really do make a difference to women and their families and are value for money for our donors. The Safe Birth Fund will also be extended under these plans to allow the most disadvantaged women to be able to access care. To help this dream become a reality please follow the link to our donations page.
