Africa health development charity AMREF has pledged to train 1300 midwives over the next five years in the continent’s newest country the Republic of South Sudan, which has one of the highest maternal death rates in the world. AMREF based in Nairobi, Kenya, has developed standardised curricula for training health workers, including community midwives, across Africa. It has operated in former Southern Sudan for over three decades, running community-based health development projects, including a maternal, newborn and child health programme.
The republic gained independence on 9 July and is emerging from 21 years of civil war. It suffers from a severe lack of trained midwives, inadequate health facilities and a high rate of teenage pregnancy, with only 10% of births attended by skilled health staff. The maternal mortality rate is one in every 50 live births, and the child mortality rate is 135 per 1000 live births, according to AMREF figures.
Dr Teguest Guerma, AMREF director general, said: ‘To ensure long-lasting health improvements, Africa’s newest nation must now begin developing a health system capable of providing services and care to all its citizens. This system must be linked to and grounded in communities in order for it to be responsive to the needs of the people.
‘To do this, investments must be made in training and deploying sufficient numbers of skilled health workers, developing health infrastructure and setting up robust community-based health information management structures.’
