AMREF Ethiopia officially launched the Stand Up for African Mothers campaign in the country on November 15, 2012. The President of the Federal Region State of Afar, H E Ismael Ali Siro was the guest speaker at the event which was hosted by AMREF Director General Dr Teguest Guerma alongside AMREF Ethiopia Country Director Dr Florence Temu.
The international campaign by AMREF seeks to draw attention to the plight of African mothers and to mobilise citizens worldwide to ensure that mothers get basic medical care they need during pregnancy and childbirth. AMREF intends to train 15,000 midwives in Africa by 2015 to help close the gap in meeting Millennium Development Goal 5, which advocates for the reduction of maternal deaths. The training of midwives in Ethiopia will start in Afar Region that is highly affected by maternal deaths, and will be rolled out to other emerging regions in the course of the campaign period.
To symbolise the launch of the campaign, the president of the federal state signed the online petition in support of Esther Madudu’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize 2015. Esther Madudu, an African midwife has saved the lives of mothers and children in the remotest parts of Uganda. Her nomination stands to bring awareness to the role of skilled midwives in reducing maternal mortality rates in Africa which currently stand at 177,000 in a year.
H E Ali Siro gave the assurance that the government was doing the best it could with the available resources and was currently building a fistula repair hospital in Afar region in partnership with different development agencies. “The government is also taking steps to prevent early marriage and female genital mutilation, some of the causes that drastically account for most of maternal deaths,” he said.
Dr Teguest thanked the government for supporting AMREF’s initiative towards improving maternal health and gave insights on how Ethiopians can participate in the campaign in order to deal with the causes of maternal deaths.
The community in Semera promised to work together with AMREF and thanked the organisation for what they said was a very good initiative towards mobilising them to act. They acknowledged that it was very considerate of AMREF to help them realise the problem and act in a way that would ensure professional health services. Chachi Tadessa, a renowned Ethiopian musician was also at the event.