Here is the Wikipedia article on typhoid fever.

Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for women in Zimbabwe. Nearly 1,300 Zimbabwean women died of cervical cancer in 2008, according to the latest estimates by the International Association for Cancer Research GLOBOCAN project.

Cervical cancer can be prevented if caught early through screening and treatment programs. Here are three important methods for detecting the presence of abnormal cells that are an early warning that a woman might soon develop cervical cancer: 

Papanicolaou (Pap) smear

The Pap test (also called cytology-based testing) has been used for decades by high-resource countries to detect precancerous cervical cells, and it has greatly reduced the number of cervical-cancer cases in these countries. Pap tests involve gently scraping cells from the cervix, staining the cells and examining them under a microscope to see if abnormal cells are present. Pap tests involve rather expensive supplies, skilled technicians, and infrastructure for processing and evaluating cell samples and following up with patients. Also, Pap tests detect cells that might or might not become cancerous, so women must be tested repeatedly over time. These requirements make Pap tests less practical for low-resource countries.

HPV DNA test

The leading risk factor for cervical cancer is infection with the human papilloma virus (HPV). Testing cells from the cervix for the presence of DNA that belongs to HPV is proving to be the most effective way to screen women at risk for cervical cancer. At present, however, HPV DNA testing is too expensive for low-resource countries.

Visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA)

This is the simplest and most economical way to detect the abnormal cells that warn of cervical cancer. In brief, very dilute acetic acid (3 to 5 percent, like vinegar) is applied to the cervix, and the solution turns abnormal cervical cells white. These white, precanerous cells can be seen by visually examining the cervix. According to the Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention (ACCP), “Until low-cost HPV DNA testing becomes more widely available for developing countries, visual inspection methods, especially VIA, provide reliable and effective means for reducing the burden of cervical cancer.”

Treatment – Cryotherapy

Cryotherapy is a technology that kills pre-cancerous cervical cells by freezing them. The ACCP has concluded that cryotherapy offers a safe, effective, and simple means of treating women with precancerous cervical cells. And it is affordable in low-resource settings.

The Need for Cervical Cancer Screening in Zimbabwe

Currently, cervical cancer early detection and treatment are largely unavailable to women in Zimbabwe. One Zimbabwean physician, who is not connected with St. Albert’s, described the situation this way:

It is of great importance to detect cervical cancer early to reduce the burden, but the main problem here is that most cases we see are [at the] end stage of the disease (stage 4 cervical cancer). We also don’t know much about cryotherapy nor VIA, and we have no capacity to test for HPV DNA.

Basically, apart from physical examination, a speculum exam is done and a punch biopsy is done to confirm the diagnosis. The results come in after about 10 days, and, if cancer is confirmed histologically, the patient is referred to Parirenyatwa Hospital for radiotherapy. But most of these patients are financially constrained; thus, they cannot travel to Parirenyatwa in Harare, the only centre with radiotherapy machines, though most of the time the machines are down (they are old machines), and the queue is long.

 Women with advanced cervical cancer who cannot travel to Parirenyatwa Hospital simply return home to die. Little palliative care is available, the doctor said. (Palliative care is designed to control pain and to comfort a dying person.)

 As for palliative care, we don’t have morphine for pain, and most of the patients cannot be followed-up because they come from far away areas. It is probable that most of these patients die at home from complications of cancer (anaemia, renal failure, fistulas of the bladder or rectum). At our hospital, we can transfuse anaemic patients if blood is available, though it is often in short supply and it is expensive. We can supply simple pain-killers.

As a first step in our cervical-cancer prevention efforts, BHA in mid-January provided St. Albert’s with funds to purchase nitrous oxide, which the hospital will use as a refrigerant for cryotherapy for treating women with precancerous cells in the cervix.

We will keep you informed here about the problem of cervical cancer in Zimbabwe and our efforts to ease the suffering it causes. Please note that you can become a part of this and our other efforts with a financial contribution to BHA.

Thanks…Darrell

As the year comes to a close we are excited to share the accomplishments of Better Healthcare for Africa with you. BHA had a very successful year in 2011, and we hope you will consider making a tax-deductible donation to enable us to continue our efforts. We often worked in partnership with other nonprofits in ways that were mutually beneficial and that enabled us to stretch our precious dollars. We look forward to continuing those relationships. Here is a brief recap of BHA’s main activities in 2011:

• BHA helped Brother’s Brother Foundation (BBF) and Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach supply and support a 40-foot container of donated medical supplies that BBF shipped to St. Albert’s Mission Hospital this summer.
•  BHA purchased a large refurbished autoclave for Muvonde Mission Hospital, which BBF shipped to Muvonde as part of another container shipment this autumn. Muvonde performs an impressive number of surgeries daily, including mastectomies and prostatectomies for cancer, and cataract and glaucoma surgery. They had been without a large autoclave since 1990.
•  Muvonde was one of five hospitals visited in early 2011. During this trip, BHA hand-carried medical supplies that were shared among these hospitals. The supplies were provided by Columbus area hospitals and by Brother’s Brother. Read about the overall visit here.
• Through BBF, BHA worked with International Orthodox Christian Charities to provide five pediatric wheelchairs for St. Albert’s and for Mutemwa Leprosy and Care Centre in Zimbabwe.
•  Global Links Suture Program provided hundreds of sutures that BHA shipped to St. Albert’s, which shared many of them with other mission hospitals.
•  Through the generosity of individual donors, BHA provided several teaching models for a new midwifery training program at St. Albert’s.
•  BHA began accepting donations on behalf of Maipelo Trust, a charity registered in Gaborone, Botswana, that provides medical care to Zimbabwean and other migrant and refugee families with AIDS in Botswana.

In 2012, we will work to improve cancer care at St Albert’s and other hospitals in Zimbabwe. Our focus will be cervical- and breast-cancer early detection, treatment and education. Donations to help support this effort are needed.

BHA is an all-volunteer organization with minimal expenses, so 98-99% of donations go toward improving healthcare and reducing suffering in southern Africa. Please make a donation using PayPal on our website or by mailing a check, payable to Better Healthcare for Africa, to our postal address:

Thank you, and all of us at Better Healthcare for Africa hope you have a New Year of peace, contentment and good health.

Sincerely…Darrell

Darrell E. Ward
President
Better Healthcare for Africa

Dear Friends,

Here is a bit of news from your St Albert’s Mission Hospital. Please, do not get frightened of my English. These days I tend to think, dream and write in Italian since it’s the language I am currently using.

The life at St Albert’s goes on as usual, but with a lot of challenges. The government is unable to assist us at all, but our friends the Chinese are carrying away the little that the country has towards the East. We are able to go ahead with our work of healing because there are angels like you who continue to help us. Thank you so much!

We received four containers full of all goodies (medical supplies, equipment both medical and building, exercise books, clothes for the poor, food etc).  Three were from Rock No War and Luisa Guidotti Missionary Group and one from America—Brother’s Brother Fountation, Better Healthcare for Africa and Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach.

The Waiting Mothers Home under construction is 80 percent complete funded by Radio Deejay and CESVI. At least the poor mothers can be welcome in a dignified home and be worthy to be called precious mothers. It is a huge complex with 12 more rooms. Medicines for the sick regularly arrive from Luisa Guidotti Missionary Group, the only entity that is assisting us with some running costs of the Hospital.

The orphans are still going to school, thanks to the tireless parents at long distance that are sacrificing for these children who are the future of our country. We used to cry tears of blood for the lack of water for the Hospital and the community around the Mission, now the water purifying plant has been completed. Hats off to our Ferrara friends who have committed themselves to maintain the running of the plant. The School of Nursing is ongoing. We do not forget many other friends who in times of crisis chip in with their support.

Your close friends of the International Medical Association on the frontline in Italy, India and Zimbabwe continue to work hard carrying out the mission activities also on your behalf. Without your support it would be impossible for us to carry out meaningful service to the needy. One of our workforce on the frontline, is not too well, she is fighting the cancer that has invaded the bones, and is currently being treated in Italy. Continue praying hard so that Elizabeth can be restored back to health so that can continue the battle in the field against disease, suffering and pain of others.

The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference Health Commission has embarked on a three year program of helping other Mission Hospitals that are in need. Five ambulances have been purchased and other 5 are in the pipe line, drugs and various medical supplies were purchased. Trainings of the Hospital managers were done.

We thank God who takes care of all, at St Albert’s there are three doctors working full time.

What shall we do with the crisis all over the world that is striking more and more on the generous group of people who have been helping the other poor in under developed countries? We better leave these worries in the hands of God!

We greet you with affection and love.

St Albert’s Hospital Staff [Elizabeth and Co.]

Christmas Card 2011

Refurbished autoclave of the type purchased by BHA for Muvonde Hospital.

The refurbished, $7,500 autoclave measures 24” x 36” x 60”. It was rebuilt by and purchased from CHOSEN Mission Project and included in a container of donated medical supplies assembled for Muvonde Hospital and Nyadire Hospital by Brother’s Brother Foundation (BBF). BBF shipped the container to Zimbabwe Oct. 17.

Muvonde Hospital has 190 beds and a School of Nursing. It has been without a large autoclave since 1990, says administrator Mr. Musvolen Zhou. “We have been relying on two small [autoclaves], which have to work almost the whole day due to the number of items which need to be autoclaved,” he said by email. “The new autoclave will mean saving electrical power, saving manpower [because workers must] attend the autoclave everyday and the whole day, and it will prompt provision of sterile material to user departments.”

Muvonde was one of five hospitals visited by BHA in March 2011. The hospital performs a high number of surgeries (528 major and 469 minor surgeries in 2009), including prostatectomies, mastectomies and emergencies, three or more per day. Two days a week are reserved for eye surgeries for cataracts and glaucoma.

The crated autoclave in the Brother's Brother warehouse ready for loading into the container and shipment to Muvonde Mission Hospital.

Please send a donation to BHA today to help improve healthcare access, treatment and education for underserved people in southern Africa. Your contribution will support care and education programs at St Albert’s Mission Hospital,  targeted equipment purchases such as a large autoclave for Muvonde Mission Hospital, and treatment programs such as Maipelo Trust.

By Darrell E. Ward

View Tracking the St. Albert’s Container in a larger map

2010

BBF begins planning to ship donated medical supplies to three African countries, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Liberia. Luke Hingson, president of BBF, contacted BHA for help in reaching Dr Elizabeth Tarira, director of the Zimbabwe Catholic Health Commission, which oversees Zimbabwe’s network of Catholic mission hospitals. BBF then works with Dr. Tarira, who also directs St. Albert’s Mission Hospital, to identify the Catholic mission hospitals in Zimbabwe most in need of aid.  

December: BBF Medical Director Dr. Chip Lambert makes a reconnaissance trip to visit the hospitals identified for possible shipments. The list for Zimbabwe list includes Catholic and Methodist hospitals, and a Salvation Army hospital.  

2011

Feb. – March: Luke, a representative of HSMO, and I spend a week visiting Zimbabwe mission hospitals targeted to receive container shipments. The visits enable us to understand each hospital’s needs and to explain to the staff how the supplies are requested and shipments are carried out. Our trip together concludes with a morning-long meeting with Zimbabwe Association of Church-related Hospitals (ZACH), an organization formed to work with customs officials and faciliate the importation of donated medical supplies for member hospitals. I then spend another week visiting St. Albert’s, and Luke spent several days visiting Nyadire Mission Hospital, affiliated with the Methodist Church.  

March – May: St. Albert’s director Dr Elizabeth Tarira works with the St. Albert’s executive board and staff to identify the hospital’s needs. She then begins selecting supplies and equipment from HSMO’s online inventory. Along with basic medical supplies, St. Albert’s requests beds, mattresses, 25 wheelchairs, including one for a child with cerebral palsy, suction equipment, and a treadmill for the rehabilitation department (interestingly, most of the hospitals we visited requested treadmills for rehabilitation).  

During this process, BBF, HSMO and Elizabeth (who can communicate only when she is in Harare) discuss whether equipment manuals and surge protectors/ power converters are available for the requested equipment, and whether the reagents and other consumable supplies required required for the equipment are available in Zimbabwe. These questions affect which equipment is ultimately sent. A biomedical engineer who helped BBF with mission hospitals in Liberia helps answer these questions.  

April: BHA acquires a used treadmill from Ohio State University for St. Albert’s. HSMO sends a truck to pick up the treatmill, along with medical supplies donated by other organizations in Columbus, OH.  

Treadmill donated to Better Healthcare for Africa by Ohio State University and destined for St. Albert’s is picked up by Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach.

Late May: HSMO begins assembling the supplies requested by St. Albert’s, then ships them by truck to Brother’s Brother Foundation, Pittsburgh, PA.  

Items from Better Healthcare for Africa included in the shipment: Several models for the St. Albert’s midwife program (purchased using contributions from individual donations to BHA) and the treadmill donated by Ohio State University. BHA also provides $5,200 toward the cost of shipping the container.

June 9: The shipment arrives at BBF. BBF loads the goods into a 40-foot container, filling the remaining space with manually operated hospital beds, mattresses and other items. Here is the packing list of HSMO items and of packing list of BBF items.

Walkers and stands for intravenous fluids (IV stands) in the BBF warehouse prior to loading into the St Albert's container.

The full container is shipped by truck to Seagirt Terminal, Baltimore, MD.  Luke notifies Elizabeth by email of the container’s progress. She replies:  

“Thanks for the good news about the container. The dream has become a reality. Our project has taken off! I really thank God and ask him in prayers to bless and reward each and every one who has worked so hard for such a good cause. Friends, thank you so much for being there for us. Together we will make a difference for our needy brothers.”   

Her email also points to the ongoing conditions that hospitals in Zimbabwe cope with when she also notes: “This morning I received a mail from Dr Thistle [at Howard Hospital, a Salvation Army mission hospital], asking if St. Albert’s can spare some IV fluids because they are in a crisis. I am sure that the Team at St Albert’s will assist.”   

June 21: The container arrives at Seagirt Terminal C324, Baltimore, MD. 

June 30: The container is loaded on board the cargo ship Maersk Visby.  

Early July: The Maersk Visby departs the Port of Baltimore.  

July 8: The Maersk Visby is located east of Anguilla, Virgin Islands, traveling south southeast at 17.7 knots.  

Aug. 1: After stopping briefly at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, the Maersk Visby arrives at the Port of Durban, South Africa, where the St. Albert’s container is off loaded.  

Mid- to Late August: The container is loaded onto the vessel Ridge, which departs the Durban Container Terminal for the Port of Beira, Mozambique.  

Aug. 26: The Ridge arrives at the Port of Beira, where the container is off loaded.  

Late Aug., early Sept.: The container is trucked from the Port of Beira to Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. ZACH works with government officials to clear the container through customs.  

Sept. 10: Elizabeth sends the following email saying that the container arrived at St. Albert’s on this day.
“Dearest friends, Brothers Brothers, Better Healthcare for Africa, Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach,   

This is just a short note to let you know that the treasure container for St Albert’s Mission Hospital has reached its destination safely. The container was delivered to the Hospital yesterday and I am still in Harare. I made haste to write before even I see the goods so that we can share this joy all of us. We beneficiaries especially and you also for having accomplished a good gesture in the name of the Lord. On behalf of all the beneficiaries I would like to extend our sincere gratitude and thanks. Thanks again. We have made it. The dream we had this February has become a reality. 
Your friend, Elizabeth”  

A village on the escarpment near St. Albert’s Mission Hospital

Abby Norris Turner, PhD, is a public health researcher in Ohio State University’s Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, who has conducted research in Zimbabwe since 1999. Her work focuses on women’s reproductive and sexual health. Her current project involves a counseling intervention related to practices that women undertake such as drying the vagina to increase male pleasure during intercourse. Such “dry sex” may increase the risk of acquisition of HIV as well as another reproductive tract infection called bacterial vaginosis.

Before Abby left for a trip to Zimbabwe in April, Better Healthcare for Africa helped her arrange a meeting in Harare with Dr. Elizabeth Tarira, director of St. Albert’s Mission Hospital, to explore the possibility of doing some work at St. Albert’s. Abby asked Elizabeth to name the most pressing public health problems in the area around St. Albert’s. Here are the leading problems Elizabeth noted:

• Traumatic Injury: These include domestic violence and assault against women and children, as well as agricultural injuries, particularly in children.
• Burns: particularly in children and around the time of the tobacco harvest.
• Cancer, particularly cervical cancer: For information on cancer care in Zimbabwe, see this story.
• Respiratory health: Homes in the area are typically round huts with grass thatch roofs and inadequate ventilation. Stove improvement projects are needed.
• HIV infection: St. Albert’s provides home-based care for HIV-infected and people with other chronic life-limiting illnesses. The hospital has trained more than 1,000 people in villages to be caregivers for HIV-positive people, and a mobile team provides home-based HIV-care services. The most recent HIV seroprevalence survey in the area put the HIV prevalence at about 7 percent in the villages, but Elizabeth thinks the true prevalence is probably higher. She also described the program for double-AIDS-orphans through which Italian families sponsor children by paying their school fees. Elizabeth explained that the sponsorship program enables children who are being cared for by relatives to have some chance at education and advancement. She worried that otherwise these children, particularly girls, have almost no freedom within the foster family and are often abused and neglected.

The leading problem facing the community, Elizabeth said, is sexual violence against women and children. Factors contributing to this problem include

A future Zimbabwean mother.

myths about HIV (for example, that having sex with a virgin or young child could cure HIV), polygamy, and widow inheritance. Elizabeth noted that there had been a considerable increase in the last few years in reports of sexual violence, including recently a five-year-old child who had a sexually transmitted infection. She knew of seven convictions of rapists in just the last two years, which was a big success given the difficulties in prosecuting these cases.

For more on women’s health, see this brief Global Health Council story.

To learn how local myths are stalling the treatment of infants with HIV in Malawi, see this IRIN story.

Take care…Darrell

Dr. Elizabeth Tarira (right) with her mother and sister Juliet. Juliet runs the Shelter Trust, an NGO in Harare that works with St. Albert's Hospital to care for abandoned pregnant women.

Rome
21^st June 2011

Dearest Friends,

God has always good plans for each and every one of us. 

Greetings from Rome! Some of you have been following my breast-cancer illness for many years now, so I have to give you some updates. It seems I have developed resistance to the drugs I have been taking.

At the end of 2009, I had another small lump operated just below the previous scar and had a small mark on the sternum bone. The cancer markers that had started going up, after the operation and the change of therapy, started going down. This year at my check up, the markers had risen again and seemed on a loose end, and one of the ribs had some osteoblast sign (the bone looked eaten up). This did puzzle the doctors. Now I have been put on a new hormone treatment which is an injection (chemotherapy) every 28 days. I do not know yet if I shall respond well to this treatment. I shall have the blood test repeated on the 4^th of July. The drug name is Faslodex (generic name, fulvestrant) produced by Astra Zeneca.

The sad thing about this treatment is that it is unsustainable. One injection costs 600€, which is equivalent to 828 US dollars. Where can I get this kind of money every 28 days? Even two months of hard work day and night, I still would not be able to buy one dose. If we put the salary of three doctors together then only can we purchase one dose, but how will we then survive? We are eight in community!  With a situation like this, I just remain speechless. This drug is only sold to Hospitals and requires a cold chain supply – it must be kept like the vaccines in the fridge between 4-8 degrees of temperature. In Zimbabwe the drug is not even available. I tried to contact an oncologist who referred me to a pharmacist, who in turn replied that he is not able to order the medicine for me. In Italy I just go to the Hospital and I get the drug free because I fall in the category of indigent.

I still have a mission to accomplish back home. There is a lot of work to be done, true. But there are many people who are in need of drugs just like me. Some are dying even too early, and yet I have been pulled along for more than ten years, getting all the possible treatments and care. The first thing to hound me is how I am so egoistic! Only me who wants to continue living….

But, God is great! Friends here in Italy, many are geared that whatever cost it shall be, they are prepared to help me for some time to get the injection. I have already treatment secured for a year and over. I just cannot find words to thank these generous friends; you have to help me to pray for them and that is all I can assure them. Let us all pray for a miracle that that this bad cell just vanishes, if this is the will of the God. I am quite serene. If I stress myself for a situation I cannot do anything, then the bad cell will be quite happy to multiply. I still have the strength to fight and have trust in the Divine Providence.

I am coming back home on the 8^th of July and will be doing my work as usual. Continue praying for me as I do for each every one of you.

Yours in the Lord
Elizabeth Tarira (Dr)

26 October 2010

BBF held a meeting at its headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA, to lay the groundwork for potential container shipment of donated medical supplies to mission hospitals in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Liberia in 2011, and for a related reconnaissance trip to be made by BBF medical director, Dr. Chip Lambert in December.

Luke Hingson, president of BBF, had contacted Better Healthcare for Africa (BHA) for the first time the previous week to explore how BBF container shipments of requested donated equipment and supplies might help support BHA’s work in Zimbabwe. He also sought BHA’s assistance in communicating with the large Catholic healthcare mission structure in Zimbabwe, headed by Dr. Elizabeth Tarira, and which represents a significant portion of Zimbabwe’s healthcare system. As part of this, Luke had invited me to join the meeting by phone.

That is how the relationship between BHA and BBF began. BHA continues to facilitate communication between BBF and Dr. Elizabeth Tarira and Zimbabwe’s Catholic Health Commission, which oversees the 50-plus Catholic mission hospitals and clinics in Zimbabwe. BHA’s efforts did strengthened Dr. Lambert’s visit to several hospitals that December, and in March, I traveled with Luke Hingson to Zimbabwe where we spent several extremely interesting days visiting five mission hospitals to learn about their services and needs. Our four days together in Zimbabwe ended with a morning-long meeting with the Zimbabwe Association of Church-related Hospitals (ZACH), which coordinates the importation of containers shipments for its 100-plus mission hospital members.

The BBF meeting in Pittsburgh included the Zimbabwean nurse matron for Nyadire hospital, a Methodist mission hospital northeast of Harare; representatives of The Nyadire Connection, a Pittsburgh nonprofit dedicated to helping Nyadire Hospital; and Luke and Liam Carstens, International Medical Program Coordinator for BBF. Luke had invited me to attend by phone.

During the meeting, Luke mentioned that a 40-foot International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) container due to arrive in Zimbabwe on December 6 included 15 pediatric wheelchairs that were available to a hospitals that would come to Harare to pick them up. Over the phone, I requested a donation for St. Albert’s.

9 December 2011

I emailed Elizabeth and asked about the wheelchairs. She replied: “Hie, Darrell. We had a fruitful time with Dr. Chip Lambert. The wheelchairs we did not see them and where they are currently we do not know, or when we will get them. We went to the pick-up site for the handover ceremony, but there was nobody. Brothers Brother will sort it out.”

16 December 2010

Biljana Mihajlovic, gifts-in-kind coordinator for the IOCC lets us know that delivery of the container to Zimbabwe is delayed due to congestion in the port of Durban, South Africa. The carrier now expects the container to be at the Mozambique Port of Beira 15 January. After clearing customs there, it will be transported overland to Harare. The estimated time of arrival there is now late January, afterwhich it will take about two weeks for the load to clear customs. The chair will then be taken to a private clinic in Harare to await pickup. Distribution of the wheelchairs is unlikely to occur before 10 February.

18 March 2011

Biljana tells us that the wheelchairs have arrived and are awaiting pick up at St. Nectarios clinic in Harare. The distribution is schedule for 30 April to 7 May. She notes that United Cerebral Palsy Wheels for Humanity (UCPWH) is a key partner in this project, and that the wheelchairs require special training to assemble and to fit to a child. UCPWH will provide a three-hour training session on complex rehabilitation wheelchair mechanics and services for the hospital staff members picking up the wheelchairs. A two-member team from UCPWH, one of whom is a registered Certified Rehabilitation Technology Supplier (CRTS) seating specialist, will provide the training. (To learn more about CRTS certification, visit the National Registry of Rehabilitation Technology Suppliers (NRRTS)).

11 May 2011

I received the following email from Elizabeth:

“St Albert’s received the beautiful wheelchairs for the needy children. We are happy because these are good chairs indeed. You have given the best the preferred of Jesus Christ, so in reality you have donated to Him. May his name be praised! With gratitude, Elizabeth”

BBF is now readying a 40-foot container of requested medical supplies for shipment to St. Albert’s Mission Hospital. Its contents have been provided by Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach, BBF and BHA. Stay tuned here to learn more about the events surrounding the assembly and shipping of this container.

This model of a pelvis with fetal heads was one of two hand-carried to St Albert's in March.

The number of midwives in Zimbabwe’s public sector is down by 80 percent, making it difficult for pregnant woman to find skilled assistance for the delivery of their babies, according to a 12 May 2011 news story by IRIN, the United Nations humanitarian-news organization.

The article notes that midwives can avert 80-90 percent of maternal deaths and reduce the deaths of newborns from preventable complications.

This information comes from a recent report on Zimbabwe’s progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals, compiled by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization.  To help ease the shortage, St. Albert’s Mission Hospital will begin a midwife training program in September 2011. Better Healthcare for Africa (BHA) is supporting the St. Albert’s program by purchasing teaching models and other supplies that will help provide effective and realistic training for the midwifery students. Funds provided by BHA contributors made these purchases possible.

Two of the models were hand-carried to Zimbabwe in February during a visit to St. Albert’s (pelvic bone with fetal head, and a fetal skull); three others were sent to Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach in Springfield, IL, and were included in a container of supplies being shipped to St. Albert’s by Brother’s Brother Foundation (breast model, cervical dilatation/effacement simulators, and newborn brown baby boy and girl). The shipment of supplies and equipment will leave for Zimbabwe in late May or early June. BHA also contributed $5,700 toward the cost of shipping the container.

The IRIN news story gave several reasons for the midwife shortage:

• The job is demanding and nurses are reluctant to train for it.
• Poor sanitary conditions place midwives at risk for contracting disease.
• Working conditions and wages are better in South Africa, Botswana and Europe.
• Zimbabwe’s long-running economic difficulties have caused doctors, nurses and other professionals to flee the country.

Millennium Development Goal Five seeks to reduce maternal deaths by 75 percent by 2015, while also raising the number of pregancies attended by skilled health professionals.