By Lindsey Pollaczek, Program Officer Sierra Leone has one of the highest reported maternal death rates in the world. In 2005, the maternal mortality ratio was 2,100 deaths per 100,000 live births and a woman’s lifetime risk of dying due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth was 1 in 8. Long distances to health facilities, the cost of health services,
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Brett Williams, director of emergency response, reports from Haiti about a recent delivery for a health facility at Petionville Country Club, which has become home to 70,000 displaced people. The Petionville Country Club, with a pool and a clubhouse, was a nice place for wealthy Haitians to hang out before the earthquake. The earthquake destroyed such large sections of the
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We have been able to organize the piles of medical supplies for the tent hospital that has been established in two large tents at the UN compound, where dozens of volunteer physicians from the States and several from France are working nonstop. Staff from the University of Miami and a team from New Jersey were among the many who had been
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This is a personal From the Field story by Direct Relief Staff, Lindsey Pollaczek I woke up this morning to thunder rattling the window panes. Unlike yesterday’s brief and powerful storm, the rain has not stopped falling for the past two hours. I keep thinking about Gloria’s family in their small tin shell of a home. I hope it’s not
Read more →This is a personal “From the Field” story by Direct Relief Employee Katie Lewis, USA Partner Liaison. We traveled about 60 miles northeast of Baton Rouge to visit Ginger Hunt, CEO at the RKM Primary Care Clinic in Clinton, a very rural part of the state. RKM, which opened in March 1999, is one of the newer buildings in the area.
Read more →The following is an update from Direct Relief’s Regional Medical Advisor and founder of Kenya-based OGRA Foundation, Dr. Hezron Mc’Obewa. Dr. Hezron is currently in Kisumu treating victims of the country’s outbreak of violence following recent elections. He is also overseeing the health projects of the Kisumu area’s humanitarian aid committee, coordinating activities between the Kenyan Ministry of Health, Kenyan
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