25 January 2025 – Visits to What’sApp4PregnantWomen+YoungMothers
We used the early morning to prepare some documents. The highlight of the morning, however, was an in-depth interview with our long-standing project partner and friend, Professor Prudence Mwini-Nyaledzigbor. She is responsible for the training of nurses and midwives throughout Ghana. She is not only the author of the curriculum for all training facilities, but also a recognized expert throughout Africa and beyond. This made it all the more interesting for us to have the opportunity to conduct an almost two-hour interview with her. We discussed problems in training, the universities’ understanding of quality or quantity and many other aspects. We will discuss this very insightful interview in a separate report.
The next highlight for us was the joint visit of 4 members of our WhatsApp4PregnantWomen+YoungMothers project, together with volunteers from Patricia Achiaa Baffour’s initiative, which we have been supporting for several years. During this excursion, we met 4 young mothers who had more or less serious problems during their pregnancy and who were helped by the WhatsApp group. They not only exchanged information with the midwives and nutritionists at all times of the day and night, but also with the other 561 members of the group.
It was interesting for us to learn how poor sex education is in Ghanaian schools and how many prejudices are attached to this topic. We shouldn’t ask the “elderly”, i.e. mothers and aunts, but talk to people of the same age, was just one of the statements we “picked up”. A young mother gave us an example of what the elders told her. “When you go into labor, you just have to lie down on the floor and then the baby will come on its own”. For the midwives accompanying us, Patricia and Franziska, and the nutrition specialist Guideon, these statements came as no surprise. On the contrary, they were pleased that we learned from participants in the groups how big their problems are due to the wide range of misinformation in their daily work.
Another interesting aspect for us was the costs that young mothers face after giving birth. One visitor, who is currently looking for work, has around 500 Ghana Cedis (approx. €30.00) a month for her baby. She is 100% dependent on the support of her husband, who does not live with her because he works far away. She currently has no money left for a smartphone, which she unfortunately lost, and the necessary communication costs, which are very cheap in Ghana.
This is exactly where we want to provide support. As we have done in the past, we would like to refurbish donated smart phones and pass them on to the organization. We would also like to cover the communication costs for those who cannot afford them. If you would like to support this wonderful idea and help save the lives of unborn babies, their mothers and young children up to the age of 5, please get in touch with us (spenden@hita-ev.org).
In order to be able to apply for funding in the medium term, we have founded a non-governmental organization together with our project partners, which will be entered in the register in Accra in the next few months.
The founding members present (picture above) were Francisca Senwaa Amoako, Financial Support for Children (far left), Daniel Gerlach, HITA e.V. (second from left) Adu Kwame Twum Gideon, Nutrition Specialist (far right), Patricia Achiaa Baffour, Midwife (center), Thomas Erkert, HITA e.V. (second from right) in person and Rafael Quaque, Technical Coordinator (left in smartphone) virtually. The midwife Akomah Abena Flora, who also supports the initiative, was unable to attend the ceremony.
We all hope that we can save more lives of babies, expectant mothers, children up to the age of 5 and young mothers with our financial and material support for this organization.