Bukola Afeni

Editor

A Five year partnership  training  program  to improve maternal and new born health  in Africa has been formed, between   the United Nation  Children’s Fund( UNICEF), and Laerdal Global Health, the non-profit arm of a Norwegian company.

According to agency report from NAN, 10,000 health workers are to be trained to support mothers and newborns in Africa through  the partnership.

The Regional Director for UNICEF, Mohammed Malick Fall, disclosed that investment in the health of women and children is a smart investment. Investing in the health of the poorest children and communities saves nearly twice as many lives as equivalent investments. Although the world has witnessed very promising progress in maternal and neonatal health over the past decades, maternal and newborn mortality rates in the Eastern and Southern Africa region remain alarming”.

“The Norwegian company provides innovative training, educational and therapy solutions for emergency medical care and patient safety. In  2017, roughly 70,000 women  died due to complications during pregnancy and birth, while in 2019, more than 440,000 newborns died in the first 28 days after birth.”

Fall added that the new partnership with Laerdal Global Health will bring investment, research and innovation to help improve the delivery of quality health services.

He said the partners will implement the ‘Helping Mothers Survive and Helping Babies Survive’ training programs, which are designed to reduce maternal and newborn mortality in low-resource settings.

The Chairman of Laerdal , Tore Laerdal disclosed that the organization will utilize  a combination of on-site and remote learning solutions to contribute to scaling-up more efficient training modules that can save lives.

“We established a ‘Buy One, Gift One’ initiative, where birth simulators were sold in high-income countries, and we support training programs in low-resource settings”.