Ammalife, the international medical organisation based in Birmingham, will be taking part in The Big Give Charity Appeal online this winter.
The group, which is officially backed by this website, funds and organises aid programmes that are directed towards improving maternal health care around the world.
One such programme, which will figure in The Big Give, is the Havelian Project. It is based in a small region in northern Pakistan and it ensures pregnant women are transported from their remote villages to hospital where a safe birth and modern maternal health services are offered.
Ammalife developed and now supports this project which can use any vehicle from a van to a taxicab to ferry women to sophisticated facilities in big cities.
‘Sometimes you don’t need an air ambulance to save a life.’ said an Ammalife spokesman.
‘A man with a van, for instance, can mean the difference between life or death for a mother & her child. We work with local people to develop reliable, low cost, sustainable ways to save lives.’
In Pakistan a woman is 40 times more likely to die in pregnancy & childbirth than here in the UK. For every woman who dies, another 20 will suffer serious illness or disability. Good medical care is available in the towns but many mothers live in remote mountain village where they are unable to reach care in a medical emergency. Roads are unmade, few have transport and there is no ambulance service.
Women register with Ammalife early in their pregnancies. The charity works with a network of local drivers to run a 24/7 emergency transport scheme so that women can reach life saving medical care. Most journeys are between 2-3 hours. Drivers are guaranteed payment when Ammalife receives the hospital records.
+Click on http://www.ammalife.org and watch the charity’s youtube insert to learn more about its projects