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Together in action for mother and child!

Safe childbirth and growing up healthy in Nong and Sepone

In 2006, a group of Laotian health professionals saw what MCNV employees in Vietnam managed to achieve. Also on their side of the border there were many health problems and they asked MCNV for  help. That was the beginning of our cooperation in the border district of Nong in Laos, ‘diseases do not stop at the border’. Since then, Nong has already better sanitation, drinking water and better nutrition. But good care for mother and child has been left behind, too many women and babies die during or after childbirth. There is insufficient knowledge about safe childbirth and women do not know where to go for help and advice during and after pregnancy.

Village health workers in the lead

We came up with a plan for Nong and the nearby district of Sepone, where the load of experience we gained in Nong now comes in handy. We want to train the village health workers in how to take care of pregnancy and childbirth, in postnatal care and good and sufficient nutrition for (pregnant) women and children. Village health workers are close to the people, speak the local language, know the traditions and recognize the difficulties from their own experience. Having faith in village health workers ensures that mothers will follow the advice and feel supported in the care of the family.

First aid in every village

The more than 150 villages in Nong and Sepone are located in a hard-to-reach area. If something goes wrong during or after childbirth, a care worker from the district health center will never get to the village in time. By in each village teaching a village health worker a number of lifesaving procedures, there is (emergency) aid close by and we reduce the chance of death during or after childbirth.

Support the women and children in Nong and Sepone!

With an amount of € 20,000, we can train 158 village health workers in Nong and Sepone so that the women in the villages can give birth safely and the baby and child mortality, which is now far too high, can quickly decrease. We use some of the money to help young mothers with a first advice on healthy nutrition for their babies and small children to get a chance to grow up healthy. This is a beautiful plan that we would very much like to take further, together with you!

On behalf of our team: Thank you very much for your (extra) contributions!
Karin Vlug