Micah 6:8
About Maternity Africa
Maternity Africa is based in Arusha Region, Northern Tanzania. Maternity Africa seeks to improve maternal health outcomes for vulnerable and marginalized women and girls of childbearing age living in poverty across rural Tanzania.
Maternity Africa has a formal agreement with the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MoHCDGEC) to provide medical services on its behalf. Maternity Africa also has a Memorandum of Understanding with Arusha District Council to provide maternal health services, free of charge to vulnerable and marginalized women. Maternity Africa also works with other non-government organisations (NGOs) to provide free of charge, good quality evidence-based maternal health services and advocate for women’s health and wellbeing.
Maternity Africa’s base at Kivulini Maternity Centre is a ‘centre of excellence’ that also strengthens the knowledge, skills, experience, competence and confidence of national health care workers. It does this through training and mentoring of staff engaged in service delivery. Maternity Africa also offers placements for tertiary level students from some of Tanzania’s universities and colleges.
Maternity Africa offers prevention of and treatment for obstetric fistula. Prevention services are provided through maternity care for early pregnancy complications, antenatal, birthing and postnatal care. This includes 24-hour obstetric emergency cover and on-site transitional neonatal care for newborn babies. Fistula treatment services are provided through surgical intervention for fistula and other birth-induced injuries. Maternity Africa also offers a comprehensive family planning service to inpatients and the local community.
Maternity Africa’s Vision
Maternity Africa’s vision is to make childbirth safe for every woman. Maternity Africa’s prayer is ‘to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.’
Maternity Africa’s Mission
Maternity Africa is a Christian-based organization that endeavours to provide fistula treatment and quality maternity care for all marginalized women throughout Africa, through clinical excellence and in the example of displaying love, kindness and compassion regardless of race, religion or ethnicity.
Maternity Africa’s Values
Integrity
Professional excellence
Justice for the poor
Human dignity
Compassion
Respect
Honesty
Maternity Africa’s History
Maternity Africa was established in 2013. It has been involved in the improvement of maternal health outcomes for women living in poverty in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Maternal health care projects were developed and operate in Tanzania and Ethiopia (Vision Maternity Care and Barbara May Maternity Hospital).
Maternity Africa has also supported other projects by offering surgical expertise in Uganda, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Kenya.
Plans for the future
Maternity Africa’s base at Kivulini Maternity Centre is recognised in the community as a hub providing quality maternity services. Maternity Africa seeks actively to equip, empower and enable women to access appropriate reproductive health services.
Through collaborations with local Government-run health facilities and other non-government organisations, Maternity Africa seeks to increase Tanzania’s capacity to deliver good quality, evidence-based maternal health care services. One initiative that is currently underway is to design and deliver a series of six-week practical skills development programmes for birth attendants working at other, less-well-equipped healthcare facilities. This programme is scheduled to commence in late 2019, train 100 birth attendants and run initially for three years.
Maternity Africa’s annual service delivery targets are for up to:
Fistula 0perations
Family planning consultations
Baby deliveries
Antenatal care visits
Dr Andrew Browning
(Founder and Chief Executive Officer)
Dr Browning is an Australian-trained gynaecologist. After training in Australia and completing his MRCOG he joined the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in 2001 as a staff specialist to treat obstetric fistula patients. He also ran the training programme. In 2006 he established the first outreach fistula hospital in Bahir Dar, also in Ethiopia. In 2011 he moved to Tanzania where he subsequently founded Maternity Africa.
Dr Browning also founded Vision Maternity Care, an Ethiopian charity that builds, runs and upgrades maternity hospitals. They provide safe obstetric care to thousands of women each year. He has a keen interest in research and has published numerous papers. He provides consultancy services for United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) and World Health Organization (WHO) on obstetric fistula-related issues. He is married to Stephanie and has two sons.
Jude Holden
(Country Director)
Jude is a United Kingdom-trained midwife with 27 years of experience. Since 2010, she has led maternal health organisations in many Sub-Saharan countries, including Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar and Sierra Leone. Jude is passionate about maternal health projects
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