Onura Maternal Survival Project will soon save lives of hundreds of mothers and their babies when the childbirth delivery bed arrives. The project also will train mid-wives to deal with childbirth complications. On July 19 2011 GlobalGiving throw a baby shower for South Sudan’ Onura clinic. Due to the overwhelming supports of GlobalGiving’s donors, we’ve raised over $21,000 to save even more mothers and babies. HO plans to buy a childbirth delivery bed from Aegean-tech, a producer based in China. Aegean-tech has quoted the price… Read More
We’ve Reached $50,000 in GlobalGiving Donations
I’ve got great news to share! Today, thanks to our generous donors, we reached $50,000 in GlobalGiving donations, more than $32,000 of it this year. GlobalGiving has given us an invaluable boost at a time when many of our regular donors are cutting back due to the global recession. Thank you Global Giving! Thank you Hope Ofiriha supporters! Thank you donors! As you may recall, last July GlobalGiving’s participated in (or turbo charged) our rally to throw a baby shower for our Onura clinic in South… Read More
GlobalGiving’s ‘Baby Shower’ One-Day Miracle
UPDATE: Due to the overwhelming support of GlobalGiving’s donors, we’ve raised our funding goal to $14,074 to save even more mothers and babies. I am over joyed to report that GlobalGiving’s participation in our rally to throw a baby shower for our Onura clinic in South Sudan has raised nearly $4,000 so far in less than a day. Our Onura Maternal Survival Project has gone from being one of our least supported projects on GlobalGiving to being fully funded (between May 2010 and yesterday, donors had only given… Read More
Welcome to the World, South Sudan
On July 9, 2011, planet Earth welcomed its newest country. Having declared independence after a decades-long civil war, South Sudan is a newborn nation full of promise. South Sudan is the 193rd player in the United Nations playground, its 6-year old government is learning to run, and its even starting to tweet from @RepSouthSudan! Up until now, moms in Onura village have been dying in childbirth because the midwives delivering babies lacked simple sterile supplies. What better way to celebrate the birth of a nation… Read More
100 Women Become Beekeepers in Onura
Hope Ofiriha’s Onura Beekeeping Project has raised $3,328 on GlobalGiving, and the results are just terrific. The project is running very well under the guidance of the village’s woman project manager and her team at the Onura Women’s Beekeeping Association. Women’s businesses are growing steadily larger and the local economy is also expanding noticeably in Onura sub village where the project is running. The beekeeping project will provide local women with the opportunity to learn a sustainable agricultural skill and earn an income to support their… Read More
Stop Childbirth from Being a Death Sentence
The maternal mortality rate in South Sudan is one of the highest in the world. An absence of trained healthcare staff, structures, and paved roads means the small, rustic maternity clinic Hope Ofiriha runs in the Onura settlement is the only medical facility about 3,500 area women can turn to give birth. The clinic isn’t fully equipped to handle deliveries, so many mothers needlessly die giving birth. Our Onura Maternal Survival Project pays for sterile supplies… Read More
Provide a Village with Drinking Water
While water has always been a problem in Onura, the drought (affecting more than 20 million people across east Africa) has created a crisis. Villagers, mostly women and girls, must walk many kilometers every single day to collect every drop. This prevents many girls from going to school and many women from having enough time to earn a decent living. Most of the water they collect—from stagnant ponds, marshes, or ditches—is contaminated with parasites and bacteria… Read More
Combat Malnutrition with Beekeeping
Many women in the remote village of Onura are single mothers supporting three or more children—their own off-spring, the children of relatives, war orphans, or children separated from their families. Many of these children, like half of children in the area, suffer from malnutrition. Beekeeping is a relatively cheap business for women to run to earn income to feed their families. Bees find their own food (while helping fertilize crops and without over grazing or contributing to deforestation)… Read More
Stop Cookstoves from Polluting and Killing
Virtually everyone in the remote village of Onura uses wood to cook over traditional cookstoves. This means villagers, largely women and girls, have to spend hours foraging for fuel and hours inhaling the toxic smoke from the fires (often with infant babies strapped to their backs). The toxins in smoke cause serious respiratory illnesses, such as pneumonia, emphysema, lung cancer, and bronchitis. At the same time, cutting down trees for fuel woods is contributing… Read More
Build a Classroom for Vulnerable Children
Since the signing of the peace agreement in 2005, the remote Onura settlement has seen an influx of returning refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), including more than a hundred war orphans and former child soldiers. Thanks to Hope Ofiriha’s generous donors, the two-classroom Onura Primary School opened in the settlement in 2006 to serve 72 students. Since then, the school has grown to more than 350 students (150 girls and 200 boys), forcing some classes… Read More
Save People from Dying from Malaria
Malaria, spread from the bite of an infected female mosquito, is epidemic all over South Sudan. The two health clinics Hope Ofiriha operates in Omilling and Onura do not have any equipment to test for it. When patients come to the clinics with malaria-like symptoms, they get treated for malaria. If they are sick for another reason, the misdiagnosis can cost them their life. The misdiagnosis also contributes to the spread of drug resistance and unnecessary antimalarial… Read More
Give Children a Chance to Go to School
The great World Cup football tournament is kicking off today at 4 p.m. with the host country opening against Mexico. I cannot wait! I wish my team (England) was on slightly better form but am still hopeful! There is also something we can do to create a lasting legacy that could see millions more kids receive an education. South Africa President Jacob Zuma has just announced that he will hold a global leadership summit during the World Cup. The aim? Push leaders and football fans… Read More
Urgent Appeal: Childbirth Delivery Bed for Onura
Each year, many women die in childbirth in the Onura sub village. Virtually all these deaths are due to a lack of childbirth facilities and hemorrhages, which is a common cause of maternal mortality worldwide. Bleeding can be controlled in a clinic but, without one in Onura, it is a death sentence. Our aim is to provide traditional midwives a childbirth delivery bed to save lives in a local post where most births and maternal deaths take place–well beyond the reach of hospitals and government health services. … Read More
