Adolescent pregnancy is a global public health concern: in 2022, about 13% of girls and young women gave birth before the age of 18.

Compared with women in their early 20s, adolescents are more susceptible to maternal deaths. Pregnancy-related complications are among the leading causes of death among Africa’s adolescent girls.

Babies born to adolescent mothers in low- to middle-income countries also face an increased risk of neonatal deaths, and pre-term and underweight birth.

Social Good Moms ContributorFebruary 2, 2024February 4, 2024Leave a comment

Africa, Agriculture, Blog, Charity, Economic Empowerment, featured, Gender Equality, nonprofits, Poverty, Products With a Purpose

Nonprofit Works to Eradicate Poverty Through Business, Not Charity

I have had the pleasure of reporting from low-income countries in east Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean many times and have seen a multitude of poverty eradication efforts from organizations that are created by social entrepreneurs to those that are funded by foundations, corporations and countries’ developmental aid. No matter the organizations’ efforts, there are key poverty eradication tenets they all subscribe to: community buy-in (financial inclusion), women-based business opportunities, educational programs, and increased access to food, clean water and quality health care. When all of these aspects are combined they tend to gradually reduce community and familial poverty.

Jennifer JamesNovember 15, 2022November 16, 2022Leave a comment

Africa, child health, Children, featured, kenya, mHealth

How health workers in Kibera are assessing sick children using a new digital health tool

By Maryanne W. Waweru l maryanne@mummytales.com

Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa. After two days of nursing her two-year-old daughter at home, an anxious Maximilla Kangahi made her way to a clinic in her neighbourhood for help.

At the health facility, Maximilla was received by Waida Kasaya, clinical officer at the Beyond Zero clinic in Karanja, one of Kibera’s 18 villages. Located in Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi, Kibera is the country’s largest urban slum area with the highest density of any settlement in the country, with an estimated population of 250,000 (UNHabitat).

maryannewaweruNovember 2, 2022November 2, 2022Leave a comment

Africa, elections, kenya, NGOS

Yes, Kenya’s Election Had Problems, But Here’s Why Things Are Better

Contributed by Hillary Omala, the Executive Director of CFK Africa

Fifteen years ago, more than 1,100 people lost their lives in the violence following Kenya’s 2007 elections. Every five years since then, the Kenya General Elections have occupied international headlines, and tensions have risen across the country as painful memories come flooding back.

But the truth is, things have gotten better.

While tensions rose during the recent election period, so did calls for peace. And even though this year’s results were contested, the arguments were resolved in our courtrooms rather than in our streets.

Social Good Moms ContributorSeptember 28, 2022Leave a comment

Africa, Blog, Covid, featured, Frontline Health Workers, kenya

Saving lives with medical oxygen in Kenya

The U.S. helped train nurse Sandra Karimi and other health care workers in Kenya to provide therapeutic oxygen. Above, Karimi works at Wangige Hospital in Kenya October 27, 2021. (USAID/Lameck Ododo)

For Sandra Karimi, a nurse at Wangige Hospital in Kenya, treating patients during the COVID-19 pandemic felt like working in a war zone.

When she first encountered COVID-19 patients gasping for air, she froze. “I was scared, honestly,” says Karimi, who works in Kiambu County, Kenya. “We were all scared.”

Social Good Moms ContributorSeptember 13, 2022September 13, 2022Leave a comment

Africa, Blog, Family Planning, featured, Reproductive Health

Why sexual and reproductive law for east African countries is being resisted

Anthony Idowu Ajayi, African Population and Health Research Center and Nicholas Okapu Etyang, African Population and Health Research Center

Six of the countries of the East African Community – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania – recently concluded public hearings on a new sexual and reproductive health bill. Proponents of the bill argue that it will improve access to sexual and reproductive health which, in turn, will improve other public health and development indicators such as maternal mortality and HIV infection rates. But the bill has faced fierce opposition since it was first tabled in 2017. The Conversation Africa’s Ina Skosana spoke to researchers Anthony Ajayi and Nicholas Etyang to unpack what the bill covers and where the sticking points are

Social Good Moms ContributorJuly 20, 2022November 7, 2022Leave a comment

Africa, Blog, Education, International Womens Day, Women and Girls

On This #IWD2022 Join CAMFED’s Global Sisterhood to Educate Young Girls

CAMFED is one the world’s leading organizations that advocates for and helps young girls in sub-Saharan Africa attain an education. CAMFED which stands for the Campaign for Female Education has to date supported 379,000 young girls with secondary school scholarships, one million girls attend primary school, and works with 6,787 partner schools across sub-Saharan Africa.

As we all know, girls who are deprived of an education are most likely tethered to a cycle of poverty for an entire lifetime. But girls who are afforded an education can leap out of poverty and and into the realms of economic development. They can take on better jobs, learn to save money, or become entrepreneurs. Women who are educated take better care of their individual environments and therefore take on climate change. And studies show when sub-Saharan women have an education, they fight for their daughter to have an education as well. They become stewards of passing down education and leaders in their communities.

Jennifer JamesMarch 8, 2022Leave a comment

Africa, Blog, Maternal Health, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality

Poor knowledge and practice around oxytocin could put women in Nigeria at risk during childbirth

Chioma S. Ejekam, University of Lagos and Chimezie Anyakora, Pan Atlantic University Severe bleeding after childbirth – postpartum hemorrhage – is a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in middle-income countries. Oxytocin is an affordable and effective drug that’s recommended to prevent postpartum hemorrhage. But there are concerns about the quality of oxytocin available for use by healthcare workers in most low- and middle-income … Continue reading Poor knowledge and practice around oxytocin could put women in Nigeria at risk during childbirth

Jennifer JamesDecember 22, 2021February 7, 2022Leave a comment

Addis Ababa, Africa, Ethiopia, featured, Human Rights, World Food Programme

Ethiopia’s Tigray Region Is still Under Attack

If you have followed my travels or have read my blog over the years you know that Ethiopia is my favorite country in the world. There is something about the people, the culture, its beauty and the sheer size of the country I love. Even though I love Ethiopia I have never been under a grand illusion that it is a unified country. There have been mass arrests and killings in Oromia, journalist and freedom fighter imprisonments, and now a civil war with mass atrocities and forced starvation against the people of the Tigray region. In fact, just this week reports of an airstrike on a market near Tigray’s capital Mekele killed at least 64 people and wounded over 100.

Even as war is still happening in Ethiopia’s northernmost region, its national election officially wrapped on Monday without voting in Tigray, of course. Now, ballots are being tallied across the country with the likelihood that the current prime minister Abiy Ahmend will be reelected.

Women selling baskets in Hawassa, Ethiopia.

Jennifer JamesJune 25, 2021October 26, 2021Leave a comment

Africa, Blog, Ethiopia, Food Security

New Photos Show Atrocities in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region

Since last November, Ethiopia and Eritrea’s militaries as well as militia groups from Ethiopia’s Amhara region have imposed heavy atrocities on the country’s northern Tigray region. Reports from the ground from journalists and aid agencies reveal mass rapes, murders, and intentional starvation of 350,000 of the region’s 6 million people. Farmers are not being allowed to plant their crops and food trucks are being turned around at gunpoint.

Yesterday, the New York Times published photos by conflict photographer Lydnsey Addario who captured some of the sufferings in Tigray including rape survivors to children who have been caught in the crossfire.

Jennifer JamesJune 17, 2021Leave a comment

Africa, featured, Maternal Health, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality

The Universal Human Right to an Identity from Birth Explained

By Caroline Kinsella, Advocacy and Communications Intern, White Ribbon Alliance

One of the more hidden human rights abuses around the world is the fact that one billion people have no legal proof of identity. Alarmingly, UNICEF estimates that about one in four children under age 5, or 166 million, are unregistered and without any trace that they exist. Conversations about reducing global poverty and protecting the health and human rights of mothers and newborns must include the challenges of birth registration.

A single piece of paper has the power to transform a person’s future. Birth certificates are necessary to access government services, life-saving medical treatment, a nationality and age related legal protections. Legal proof of birth is often required to attend school and apply to higher education, as well as open a bank account and vote. Many of the individuals without a birth certificate today are children who were never registered at birth. In some cases, nobody knows for decades that a child does not have a birth certificate.

In Uganda, Senfuka Samuel, who goes by Sam, applied for a master’s degree program that required a birth certificate. As he did not have one, Sam had to venture to the hospital where he was born. There, he discovered that hospital records before the year 2000, including any proof of his birth, were destroyed in the civil war. Traveling hundreds of miles over two weeks, Sam spent his own money to first get issued a necessary ‘birth notification’ – a slip of paper with birth details handwritten by a midwife – to later gain a new legal birth certificate.

Social Good Moms ContributorApril 1, 2021April 22, 2021Leave a comment

Addis Ababa, Africa, Blog, Global Gag Rule, Global Gag Rule, Maternal Health, Mexico City Policy, Reproductive Health, Women and Girls, Women's Rights, Workers' Rights

The Global HER Act Explained #ReproductiveHealth #GlobalHERAct

It was a sunny afternoon as most days are in Ethiopia in April. I was taking an individual tour of a large hospital in the middle of Addis Ababa where I got to talk to doctors, nurses, and see waiting rooms and even patients who were recovering from care.

I distinctly remember the room of women who had recently had abortions or were awaiting one. The room was eerily silent despite the number of patients in the large recovery room with few windows and no air conditioning. Personal effects were on all of the beds: blankets, purses, food, extra clothes . Some of the women had female visitors, others did not. While the Ethiopian abortion law on the books is considered “semi-liberal” by African standards, there is some pushback on abortion services although in practice if a woman wants an abortion she can most likely get one. This is mostly to help decrease maternal mortality rates and to curb the rates of unsafe abortions.

As I concluded my tour, the last room I saw was where the abortions took place with all of its machines and lone hospital bed. At that moment I was glad that despite the law, these Ethiopian medical professionals along with the hospital’s policy allowed women to have a choice about their own bodies and reproductive rights.

Jennifer JamesJanuary 29, 2021Leave a comment

Africa, Blog, featured, Maternal Health, United Nations, World Health Organization

4 Reasons The US Is Back on Track With Global Health

As is true with each new presidential administration the global health community hangs in the balance. According to KFF.org the US global health funding was set at $11 billion in FY 2019 and in 2020 the funding was significantly decreased. This funding goes towards programs in more than 70 countries for HIV, malaria, maternal and child health among other health challenges. But now with the … Continue reading 4 Reasons The US Is Back on Track With Global Health

Jennifer JamesJanuary 28, 2021January 29, 2021Leave a comment

Africa, Maternal Health, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality, midwives, Reproductive Health, Women and Girls

[WATCH] Video Shows Horrors of Childbirth in Sierra Leone #MaternalHealth

The United Nations has designated Sierra Leone as the most dangerous place to have a baby. In fact, it has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world at 1,360 deaths per 100,000 live births. On average, most women have at least six babies in Sierra Leone. In a previous post I mentioned the Aminata Maternal Foundation that helps pregnant women in Sierra Leone. An … Continue reading [WATCH] Video Shows Horrors of Childbirth in Sierra Leone #MaternalHealth

Jennifer JamesSeptember 1, 2019Leave a comment

Africa, Blog, Environment and Climate, Sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals

To Combat Climate Change Ethiopia Plants Over 350 Million Trees in 12 Hours

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. Chinese Proverb One of my favorite countries in the world is Ethiopia. I have had the pleasure of visiting four times traversing the north and south and find it gorgeous in so many regions. I cannot wait to go back one day to see all of its rapid changes. Yesterday, … Continue reading To Combat Climate Change Ethiopia Plants Over 350 Million Trees in 12 Hours

Jennifer JamesJuly 30, 2019July 30, 20191 Comment