Bungelay, a midwife, practising on a resuscitation doll

Donated teaching aids give practical hands on training sessions with mannequins and teaching dolls to community midwives.

Since 95 % of the women in the Deou area are illiterate and find it difficult to follow theoretical workshops. Past experience has shown that visual aids such as mannequins, teaching dolls, charts and other practical equipment are invaluable during the training sessions. This enables the women to absorb the information through practical demonstrations as well as to get beneficial hands-on experience.

A midwife from the Bella community in training. This is an example of important piece of equipment – a life size pelvis and baby doll with placenta - that we have recently, thanks to donations, been able to purchase from the UK.

We also thank our supporters abroad for the kind donations which have recently allowed us to purchase further equipment from UK’s National Childbirth Trust, desperately needed in our projects.

In February we received the wonderful news that NORAD (Norwegian Agency for Development) has renewed the contract for a third year to support AMURT’s expanding Safe Motherhood programme.

In 2002, at the request of the provincial health director, AMURT started a safe motherhood program in the Deou area in northern Burkina Faso. The area has among the highest maternal mortality figures on the planet. The program focuses on the training of village midwives chosen by the women in each of the villages.

Donated Equipment in use