Summer 2012 Newsletter | CAUSE Canada

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In This Issue:

Big Progress in Sierra Lone! Maternal and Child Health Gaining Real Momentum

Coming This Year in Maternal and Child Health

The CAUSE Kids Spectrum of Girls Education

Big Progress in Sierra Leone!
Maternal and Child Health Gaining Real Momentum

Things are getting better for mothers and babies in Sierra Leone!

Until recently, one in every eight women in Sierra Leone died from complicated pregnancy or childbirth. One in eight! In Canada, the corresponding statistic is 1 in 11,000.

At the same time, one in every five children in Sierra Leone died before their fifth birthday. That’s five kids missing from every single first grade class.

In 2010, the Government of Sierra Leone legislated free healthcare for pregnant women, new mothers, and children under-5. Since that time, hospital births have increased in some places five-fold, and both maternal and child mortality rates have dropped by over 50%!

This is an incredible testament to the value of simple, affordable healthcare services, and it is making an enormous difference where women can access government hospitals. But there are 200,000 people for every hospital in Sierra Leone (there are 39,000 people per hospital in Alberta). With Sierra Leonean women averaging five pregnancies, and 60% of the population living in rural areas where hospitals are rare, many remain outside the purview of formal medical care.

SERVING AT THE MARGINS

CAUSE Canada’s maternal and child health interventions operate in these margins. Public health education, training for health workers, birthing huts for safe and sanitary delivery, vaccinations and vitamin mega-doses, malnutrition screening and treatment, and helping local women to grow as health leaders in their communities – these strategies have huge impact in rural regions.

In fact, in most of the communities with new birthing huts there have been no reported home deliveries and no maternal deaths. Pregnancy monitoring by CAUSE Canada-assisted Mothers Clubs and in CAUSE Canada-operated birthing huts means that women with complicated pregnancies know their risks in time to reach appropriate care at government hospitals.

COMING THIS YEAR

This May, CAUSE Canada signed a partnership agreement with a grassroots Sierra Leonean women's rights organization to foster critical discussion of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) with girls, FGM initiators, and community leaders. Through culturally aware knowledge-sharing and campaigning with women's groups, students clubs, and the broader public, this partnership represents a bold new step in addressing this often-ignored but vital issue.

FGM increases a woman's likehood of suffering pregnancy complications, including death, and increases a girl's risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections. It is painful, dangerous, and often done without informed consent. It also forms part of important solidarity and initiation rites for young women. CAUSE Canada is excited to promote critical discussion in Sierra Leone about this contentious and value-laden practice.

Further, CAUSE Canada plans to build, supply, and administer 14 new birthing huts in the coming year. With support from UNICEF and individual donors, we will also expand screening for malnutrition and referral services for children under-5 in rural communities. And we will be working with 168 Mothers Clubs to deploy their skills and influence in the service of public health.

Join with CAUSE Canada today and contribute to full and abundant lives in Sierra Leone!

The CAUSE Kids Spectrum of Girls Education
One of CAUSE Kids' priorities is enhancing educational opportunities and benefits for girls and young women. After all, the more education a girl has the more likely she is to send her own children to school, the higher her income is likely to be, and the more able she will be to protect herself and her family against HIV/AIDS and other diseases. CAUSE Canada's maternal and child health programs help girls reach primary school, where CAUSE Kids addresses her formal education needs. Afterwards, CAUSE Canada's Women's Integral Empowerment Program, microfinance, and Mothers Club programs bring us full circle.

	Need: When domestic chores and agricultural work sustain the household, girls are the first to be kept at home to work. If families expect their daughters to marry in their teenage years and plan for husbands to earn all necessary income, sending girls to school can seem like a poor investment. Action: Sponsorship supplies school uniforms and supplies so there is no direct cost to the family. CAUSE Kids also makes primary school safe and child friendly through infrastructure, water and sanitation, teacher training, and healthcare services. Agricultural education programs and daily school meals reduce the opportunity cost of school and ensure that girls learn skills that are relevant to their home communities. Result: There are now as many girls as boys among the 4,500 students in CAUSE Kids Elementary Schools, a first for Koinadugu District!

Need: A variety of school fees come into effect in Junior High School. These expenses, and the fact that girls are approaching marriage age, means the gender gap that used to exist in Elementary School starts showing up in Junior High instead. Action: CAUSE Kids covers school fees and uniform costs for all students who graduate from CAUSE Kids-supported Elementary Schools. Result: Reduced Junior High drop-out rate for girls is improving gender parity at this crucial juncture.

	Need: With few female teachers or peers, increasing expense for fees and supplies, and pregnancy removing many from the classroom, girls in High School face many obstacles to success. Action: The CAUSE Kids Peer Literacy Program trains girls in grades 10 and 11 to be peer literacy tutors for groups of Elementary School students. In exchange, tutors receive school fees, uniforms, computer training, and a network of strong female students and CAUSE Kids staff for support. Result: 40 High School girls are continuing their studies and tutoring 500 Elementary students.

Need: Cost, isolation, and the challenges of a difficult curriculum make high school graduation much less common for young women than for young men. For those who do graduate, these same obstacles prevent almost all young women from pursuing post-secondary education. Action: The CAUSE Kids Bursary Program grants scholarships to the most successful Peer Literacy tutors. Bursaries cover the final year of High School and all four years of a University or College program of the woman's choosing. Result: 15 young women are continuing advanced education, including studies in nursing, law, and education.

	Need: The majority of teachers in Koinadugu District have no formal training. This is especially true of the region's few female teachers. Few female teachers combined with a lack of training means too few female role models and low quality education for students. Action: CAUSE Kids offers bursaries to Koinadugu's teachers to attend Teachers College, with a special emphasis on women. Result: 10 teachers are pursuing advanced professional accreditation at Makeni Teachers College.

Click here for a pdf version of our Spectrum of Girls Education poster