What is a Women's Group?
Women's Groups are life saving. Studies show that Women’s Groups can lead to substantial increases in newborn survival as well notable improvements in maternal and newborn care and wellbeing. This approach has been tried, tested and proven to work in reducing maternal and infant mortality.
A women's group:
- has 25-30 female members;
- does not exclude men;
- meets on a regular basis;
- is facilitated by a trained, local woman;
- identifies health problems specific to the group;
- works out low cost, low tech solutions to address these problems.
For each woman who attends the group, it is estimated that another three will benefit from word of mouth communications in the community.
Examples of low cost solutions some women's groups have come up with:
- emergency funds;
- video shows;
- stretcher schemes;
- bicycle ambulances;
- Picture cards with healthcare messages (used to raise non-literate pregnant women’s awareness of how to look after themselves and their newborns and how to recognise a health emergency).
The cost:
- £80 runs a women’s group for a whole year;
- £250 buys two bicycle ambulances to get mothers and babies to a clinic in an emergency;
- £500 delivers a village health education campaign;
- £1,000 enables 200 women to attend a women’s group for a whole year;
- £2,000 trains three community health workers in maternal and newborn healthcare.
Saving Lives
Over a quarter of a million women and three million newborn babies die each year in pregnancy and childbirth or soon afterwards, the majority of them in Africa and South Asia. For every woman who dies at least twenty more suffer complications which leave them with lifelong disability and pain.
Our unique programmes are saving the lives of mothers and babies every day. We need you to help us to equip women with their most vital survival tool: knowledge.
