Christian Aid Week starts tomorrow and
this year’s focus is on maternal health in
Sierra Leone, sharing the key message of
“All mums should live.”
Church volunteers have collected
donations during Christian Aid Week
since it began more than 60 years ago
to help people living in extreme poverty to
protect themselves when disaster strikes.
Sierra Leone is the most dangerous place in the world to become a mum as they
lack the funds to provide basic healthcare. Pregnancy and childbirth is a time of fear
for women; there is only one midwife per ten thousand people. Many women cannot
afford to travel the long distances to hospitals, and consequently give birth at home
with aid from traditional birthing attendants. Complex births sometimes challenge the
attendants’ limited skill-set and many women lose their babies and sometimes their
lives.
Women who fear giving birth at home often walk to hospital when labour pains begin.
Jebbeh’s sister was one of these women; sadly, she didn’t make it to hospital and she
died with her baby by the side of the road. Jebbeh is expecting her own baby, and she
is scared.
This Christian Aid Week, funds will be raised to help women like Jebbeh give birth safely.
Christian Aid want to fund health clinics, health worker training, sanitation training and
equipment, to make giving birth a time of celebration, not fear.
Please pray for Jebbeh, her child and other women in Sierra Leone. Please also pray
for all those raising money for Christian Aid this week.
Dudley Deanery – Rural Dean: Dominic Melville; Lay Chair: Anne Penn
Gloucester: Bishop Rachel Treweek with Bishop Robert Springett (Tewkesbury)
Västerås (Sweden): Bishop Mikael Mogren
The Anglican Church of Korea: Archbishop Moses Nagjun Yoo
