Last updated on January 23rd, 2019 at 10:36 am
Hello my Thankful Thursday Dreamers,
This week, I am grateful for having such a lovely daughter and for having been given the opportunity to be a mother to such a wonder. Children really are miracles walking among us.
But in some parts of the world, having a baby can be a life-threatening dream for women.
Surviving childbirth is still one of the most difficult situations for mother and child in any country, but it’s especially bad in South Sudan. It seems crazy to me that in these modern times that childbirth can be a danger to both mother and child.
As mothers, many of us can appreciate a dream to reduce the world’s maternal mortality rate, but I want to share today what Health eVillages is trying to do about this issue.
Health eVillages is a program of the not-for-profit Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights and Physicians Interactive. They just announced that eVillages will partner with the Real Medicine Foundation (RMF) to provide funding for a full-time physician, mobile health devices and applications to help combat this tragic mortality rate in South Sudan, the newest country in the world.
No mother should have to die giving life to a child.
In South Sudan a woman has a 1 in 7 chance of dying in pregnancy and childbirth in her lifetime – the highest official maternal mortality rate in the world with 2,054 deaths per 100,000 live births.
The Real Medicine Foundation has been working to improve childbirth conditions in South Sudan since 2010. The organization co-founded the country’s first accredited College of Nursing and Midwifery, with 30 graduates in 2013 and another 54 graduating this coming December. These women dream of helping women survive childbirth.
The Real Medicine Foundation also delivers significant support to Juba Teaching Hospital, the only referral hospital in the country—a facility with 580 beds that serves a population of almost 10 million.
Yes, you read that math correctly.
The immediate launch of Health eVillages’ partnership with RMF includes the following initial commitment:
• Health eVillages will provide a grant to RMF to employ Mohammed Eisa, M.D., a Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award Laureate and a leader of large- and medium-scale humanitarian operations for 20 years.
Originally from Darfur, Sudan, Dr. Eisa is the only medical doctor born and raised in that region. He spent more than a decade of his career leading teams of physicians, public health workers, statisticians and nurses to combat disease and improve health among the population of Sudan.
Most recently, he received a Master’s in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
• Health eVillages, which provides iPods®, iPads® and other handheld devices equipped with specialized references and clinical decision support tools to medical professionals, will deliver 30-50 mobile devices pre-loaded with clinical content each year to nursing graduates.
Having this best-practice clinical information available at the point of care will help overtaxed medical personnel deliver high-quality patient care as effectively as possible in a challenging clinical environment.
“We greatly admire the passion, drive and especially the commitment to immediate action that Donato Tramuto, the founder of Health eVillages, is offering us,” said Martina C. Fuchs, M.D., Ph.D., founder and CEO of RMF.
“South Sudan’s healthcare infrastructure has been decimated by more than two decades of civil strife and war. Training a new generation of professionals is a critical part of rebuilding this infrastructure. Dr. Eisa’s experience and vision, along with the clinical decision support tools that Health eVillages brings to the table through mobile apps, will be a critical factor in reducing maternal death rates in the country.”
The launch of the above initiatives is just the beginning of what will become a longer term partnership between the two humanitarian organizations.
“The work that Dr. Fuchs and RMF are doing in South Sudan is extraordinary, and we are honored to become a part of it,” said Donato Tramuto, Chairman and CEO of Physicians Interactive and founder of Health eVillages. “Healthcare conditions for mothers in the region are heartbreaking and unacceptable. What we’ve announced is just a first step in our collaboration with RMF to right this wrong.”
In addition to South Sudan, Health eVillages now provides support to communities in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Haiti, India and areas of rural Louisiana affected by the Gulf Oil Spill.
If you’d like to support their cause, you can donate to eHealth Villages at www.healthevillages.org/give.
Here’s wishing their dreams of correcting this situation for women comes true. I am both honored and grateful to use this space to make the world aware of this program to help reduce maternal mortality rates.
Love, Sue
Sue Faith Levy
Just PurSue it!
About Health eVillages:
Health eVillages, a program of the not-for-profit Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights and Physicians Interactive, provides state-of-the-art mobile health technology including medical reference and clinical decision support resources to medical professionals in the most challenging clinical environments around the world. For more information about Health eVillages, please visit www.healthevillages.org.
About Physicians Interactive:
Headquartered in Reading, MA, PI aspires to use the power of worldwide networks of healthcare professionals and life sciences companies together in ways that will change the practice and business of medicine for the better. PI’s value proposition is to offer the life science industry a low-cost, virtual, multi-channel marketing approach that can be used to supplement currently promoted products, as well as non-promoted and orphaned products, that deliver benefits to physicians and patients. A key focus is providing services that fit into physicians’ and healthcare professionals’ daily workflow at the point-of-care when they make diagnosis, treatment and prescribing decisions. More information can be found at www.PhysiciansInteractive.com.
Other Sources:
Physicians Interactive
PRNewswire
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Sue Levy is the founder of the South African Just Pursue It Blog and Inspirational Women Initiative. She’s a motivational writer and media designer, who is obsessed with everything inspirational with a hint of geek. She thrives on teaching women how to be brave and take big chances on themselves. You can find Sue on her Twitter page @Sue_Levy.
Note: Articles by Sue may contain affiliate links and may be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on an affiliate link.
