Nonprofit provides birth kits to refugee camps and sub-Saharan Africa

I just received news (thanks Audrey!) about this interesting new nonprofit World Birth Aid. I thought Open Arms blog readers might be interested.

Their opening sentence on their website says so much:

All it takes to save two lives is a clean pad, soap, razor blade, a length of string and a set of illustrated instructions.

I think that is amazing - that these items are so absent that a woman has to birth without them. We take so much for granted.

Here's an email from Yvonne Røskeland, one of the World Birth Aid team:

Hello my friends,

Good Spring to you all. As many of you know I have had an interesting year. Due to circumstances beyond my control I was unable to work as a midwife this past year, which has provided me with a wonderful opportunity to spend time with my two year old son Lukas. I hope to introduce you soon to those he has yet to meet. The time I have had away from work has also allowed me to reflect on my personal and professional life.

I spent formative years of my youth in Africa with my family and shortly after receiving my midwifery education I spent two months in Afghanistan delivering babies in a devastatingly dire environment. These experiences have helped encourage me to create a non-profit organization to aid pregnant women and newborn babies in desperate circumstances in sub-Saharan Africa. My organization is called World Birth Aid. The goal of World Birth Aid is to provide a simple clean birth kit which consists of soap, a clean pad on which to deliver, clean string to tie the umbilical cord, a clean razor blade to cut the umbilical cord and illustrated instructions on how to carry out a hygienic delivery outside of a hospital environment.

It is a small organization with a simple charter but I know that if we can provide clean birth kits to women who would otherwise be forced to deliver in squalid conditions we will save lives.

I have recently finished our website. If you wish, you can learn more at www.worldbirthaid.org. If you feel inclined, please forward this email to any and all friends as the larger community we can create the more birth kits we can deliver.

Warm wishes to you all,

Yvonne