Update June 2011
I am updating the page as I am soon off to Ethiopia again.
we have decided to expand the project to cover more villages, buy more bikes and also run a strand to the project of women's groups. We will train women in antenatal care and then they will return to their villages and cascade the learning. I believe it will educate and empower the women rurally.
We are awaiting the delivery of the 2 motorbike ambulances. Everyone in Gimbie and the rural areas are so excited and I can't wait for them to start working.
I am off to run training for 50+ healthcare workers on the basic of antenatal care and then the clinics will start in full. Again its really exiciting.
So more women will be helped and more lives will be changed.. but MORE money is needed.. as ever. Thank you for your ongoing help!!
Update March 2011
We have amazingly raised the £25,000 we set out to raise. We are so grateful to all those who have helped us raise this money. We really have been overwhelmed by the support we have received.
We have started putting the money into action. We have recruited a brilliant Ethiopian Midwife called Sielshi and he is being trained at the moment. We are also in the process of buying a much needed motorbike ambulance - which will transfer women in labour to the hospital. Its all very exciting. When we set out with this project we were hoping to give free healthcare to over 150,000 women. Now it looks like its going to be over 250,000 and so we are going to carry on raising money so that we can help as many mothers as we can. PLease carry on helping if you can and we will carry on spending every penny you donate on the project - Thanks so much Camilla
In 2009 Liz Yea, David Stacey and I were asked by a friend who is a director for Maternity Worldwide whether we wanted to cycle across Ethiopia to raise money for them. ‘No’ we cried, but it did start us thinking whether there was anything else we could do to support the charity.
Liz, David and I decided that rather than cycle across Ethiopia we would go there and to the hospital to see if we could help. Maternity Worldwide runs Women’s groups in 40 of the surrounding villages and on discussion with the charity we thought we would run outreach clinics to those villages for 3 weeks.
My biggest worry on our first day was that no-one would turn up to the temporary clinic we were holding in a mud hut. I should have never worried. To every clinic we held 200-300 people came. Most people we saw were too poor to see a doctor or their village was too remote for them to get to a clinic; a lot were even too poor to have shoes or proper clothing.
I saw so many mothers who were struggling to feed and care for their children who were sick with amaemia, thyroid disease and parasite infestation. Often if the mothers die in child birth the fathers can not manage to bring the children up and have to abandon them and they die. These mothers who are so integral to the families need help.
Leaving the clinics was the most difficult thing because we never had enough time to see everyone. A lot of the need was incredibly basic.
We were so inspired that we have decided to raise enough money to start mobile women's health clinics that would run all the time.
We need to raise £25,000 and this will run the outreach clinics for 3 years. We hope to raise it by November so we can set the clinics to start up then.
We hope that the women's health clinics can provide simple basic health care for over 150,000 women and all for £25,000 for three years.
Please help us to help the women of Gimbie help themselves to a better future.
Together I know we can raise that money!
Thank you
Camilla
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