Crowdfunding coup! Our midwives made the front page at indiegogo.
On Tuesday, January 8, 2013, the UCSF Midwives for Comadrones campaign crossed the 50% milestone in its $20,000 fundraising campaign, and it was promoted to the front page of the popular crowdfunding website indiegogo.
Campaign Overview
Traditional midwives and families in southwest Guatemala need your help. In their communities nearly nine out of ten people live on less than $2 a day. Just one in three Guatemalan women have a skilled attendant in childbirth, and the risk of dying during pregnancy is nearly 34 times higher than in the United States. Despite these significant challenges, traditional Guatemalan midwives (comadronas) are committed to providing safe care for women and babies.
Your donations will help save a long-term nurse-midwifery service-learning project that is threatened due to faculty retirements, the economic recession and decreased funding for public education. With your help, UCSF professor Jenna Shaw-Battista, RN, PhD, NP, CNM and students will continue an effective maternity care program in vulnerable Mayan communties, and partner with local traditional midwives to transform the service-learning project into a new collaborative educational program called Midwives for Comadronas.
Background + Future Plans
Midwives for Comadronas is a new project that will enable the continuation of a long-term service-learning program in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala. Unfortunately UCSF’s participation in this incredible program is threatened by lack of funding, as is the larger service-learning program’s survival. Additionally, there have been faculty retirements and the recent passing of a beloved project champion in San Lucas Toliman, Father Greg Schaffer.
For the last 15 years U.S. nurse-midwifery and nursing education programs have partnered with San Lucas Toliman residents and health care providers to improve maternal-child health in the area. UCSF has been involved in the project for almost a decade and Professor Shaw-Battista has participated for the last 3 years. Since the project began, US. .teams of faculty and students have traveled to Guatemala several times a year. The program has provided hundreds of nursing and nurse-midwifery students, and other health care trainees from the U.S., the opportunity to participate in a comprehensive community services program developed by locals in collaboration with the San Lucas Toliman Catholic parish and regional health care programs.
To be a part of saving babies and women in Guatemala, please visit our campaign which runs through January 16, 2013.