Barbara May Maternity Hospital, Ethiopia

Funded in partnership with the Sydney & South Western Sydney Local Health District (S&SWSLHD), the first project undertaken by the Foundation was to fund the building of a full-service maternity hospital in the Afar region of Ethiopia to be run by Valerie Browning. It is situated so that more than 500,000 Afar women are now within a two hour drive of expert medical services and maternal care. Since the hospital became operational it is estimated that more than 8,000 girls and women have been treated and had access to safe and dignified pregnancy and birth.

APDA, in conjunction with MA, designed a rigorous remote village birth attendant training program which is estimated to have trained 1600 attendants to date. In addition, APDA has created eight triage units along the main road for Emergency Obstetric Care cases for remote women. The hospital has recently
been extended to increase capacity.

The wonderful work of Valerie Browning’s astonishing life in the Afar region of Ethiopia is available to purchase online through Pan MacMillan.

How can you help?

Programmes supported wholly or in part by the Barbara May Foundation include:

. The building and operations of the Vision Maternity Care Hospital in Barhirdar, Ethiopia.
. The operations of the Barbara May Maternity Hospital in Mille, Ethiopia.
. Kivulini Maternity Centre – Maternity Africa, Tanzania. This centre provides obstetric services and an extensive fistula repair programme which includes significant outreach programmes.
. Tertiary education of local medical professionals.