Malawi has a high newborn mortality rate: 1 in 45 births will end in a baby’s death. Furthermore, 1 in 196 births results in the mother dying in labour, or shortly after.
Working with The MaiKhanda Trust, financed by the Big Lottery Fund, Women and Children First established 268 community groups in the Nkhotakota District of Malawi. These groups had over 11,000 members, who worked hard to design and deliver impressive local solutions to improve mother and child health.
These included health education via wall messages and community campaigns; income generation for crisis and transport funds; vegetable growing, sale and distribution.
We also supported the delivery of high quality maternal and newborn health services at 20 facilities.
The project led to large increases in knowledge, changes in care seeking practices and improvements in the quality of services.
Charts showing improvements in knowledge of danger signs and care-seeking practices from the start of the project and the end of the project, showing notable achievements in all areas
A male community member commented on the impact of the project: “Sometimes women could die on their way to the maternity ward – both the woman and the baby. But these days, the death rate has decreased”.
This is one of the examples of the impact that Women and Children First has had, thanks to our kind supporters. In 2018 the charity:
Worked in 10 countries: El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Malawi, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the UK
Reached over 850,000 people, supported over 1,000 community groups, where 60,000 women and men have designed solutions to their health challenges
Trained over 2,100 frontline health workers
Saved over 250 lives of women and children by improving health, access to resources, quality of health services and empowering women to challenge harmful cultural norms
You can read more about the achievements of the charity in the annual review:
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