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Wales for Africa: Stories of Success

Mother and Baby are Both Doing Well
Hope for Grace Kodindo: the Cardiff - Chad link

Angela Gorman, a midwife from south Wales, arrived home after a hard day at work and put her feet up to watch a little television. What she saw that night inspired her to take action that would save the lives of thousands of women in Africa.

‘It was in the midst of the Make Poverty History campaign and a BBC Panorama documentary came on called Dead Mums Don’t Cry’ explains Angela, who at the time was a Senior Neonatal Sister at the University Hospital in Cardiff.

‘The documentary was about a maternity hospital in Chad, Central Africa, where a doctor called Grace Kodindo was fighting to save the lives of pregnant women. They were losing one a day because they could not afford basic medicine.’

‘I contacted the programme,’ Angela explains. ‘I talked to others who had also got in touch and together we formed the charity Hope for Grace Kodindo.’

Having found sponsorship from a number of organisations (Angela’s trade union, Unison, donated £5,000 alone) they went on to supply equipment and drugs to the hospital where Dr Kodindo was working.

One of the most important of these drugs is Magnesium Sulphate. Difficult to get hold of in Africa, at just 60p a dose it can save a woman’s life. It is used to treat eclampsia in pregnant women.

In wealthier, healthier countries pre-eclampsia occurs in as many as 10% of pregnancies, but is easily treated. It is more common in Africa in women who have preexisting hypertension, diabetes & auto-immune diseases like lupus. A woman might need 5-7 doses, but families struggle to raise the funds so with no other choice it’s often left untreated with devastating effects.

In 2005, in the 12 months preceding the television documentary, the maternal mortality rate in N’Djamena, Chad’s capital was 14%. In the year following the charity’s intervention this figure dropped to 2.3% meeting and exceeding the requirements of the 5th Millennium Development Goal, improving maternal health.

‘The most remarkable thing about this is how easy it's been. In a sense, that's great, but it makes me really angry that things have been allowed to get into this state,’ says Angela.

‘The European Parliament and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) contacted us in May 2007 to ask if we could repeat the same success in neighbouring Liberia,’ continues Angela. ‘So, I was released from my job on three years unpaid secondment to work full-time for the charity.’

The charity’s work came to the attention of the Welsh Assembly Government, who funded a visit to Liberia in May 2008 and provided funding to begin training midwives. ‘The Welsh Assembly Government has really helped us,’ adds Angela.

By sharing their skills, health professionals from Wales develop vital experience in dealing with difficult and challenging healthcare situations. Many are so inspired to help they go out on their own time taking annual leave and raising their own funds. Welsh Assembly Government funding is in addition to these funds and those raised by charities like Hope for Grace Kodindo.

The ‘Wales for Africa Health Links Group’ was set up in 2007 to facilitate a co-ordinated and effective approach to promoting and supporting the development of the global health agenda in Wales.

Biku Ghosh, Chair of the Group said: ‘It is recognised that Wales is leading the way in developing and sustaining health links. We pride ourselves on sharing experience and expertise between links within Wales and our colleagues in Africa. If Wales is to be truly effective in tackling global health inequalities we must continue to work together and increase the impact of the many health links that are operating in Wales.’

‘If someone wanted to replicate what we have done, they would need to get midwives involved at both ends, and undertake a needs analysis,’ advises Angela. ‘Do they have the medical staff? Do they have the drugs? Do they have the training? They need all of this information.’

How long will Hope for Grace Kodindo continue? ‘The day they say to us, ‘Angela we don't need you any more, we can become just friends,’ that's when I'll be happy,’ Angela concludes. Find out more at www.hopeforgracekodindo.org.

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