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This is a text-only version of an article first published on Wednesday, 15 June 2016. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
Stephen Ngugi (with the guitar), raises awareness of vital work to help ensure safe births in Kenya this Christmas.
FOR women in Kenya, having a baby can be perilous. They are 40 times more likely to die in childbirth than mothers in the UK. When hospitals are far away, and transport is too expensive or non-existent, women are often forced to give birth in dirty and dangerous conditions.
Around 40,000 newborns die in Kenya each year, most of those deaths could be prevented with basic health education and facilities. Stephen Ngugi, who works for Christian Aid in Kenya, will be telling people in Oxfordshire and Berkshire about the much-needed work he does supporting women and children with maternal health care as he launches the charity's Christmas campaign. The appeal which sees the UK Government matching every pound raised, will see even more lives saved in childbirth across Kenya and Malawi.
Stephen is speaking at Magdalen College Chapel, High Street, Oxford, OX1 4AU at 8pm and hosting an Advent retreat at in Berkshire on Saturday. 10. 30am to 4pm at Mortimer Methodist Church, near Reading, RG7 3TB.
In rural Narok County, south-west Kenya, Christian Aid's partner organisations TRDP and ADSMKE train community health workers and traditional birth attendants to support expectant mothers. They have provided three village motorbikes and ambulances to get women safely to hospital and built three maternity wings at rural hospitals, equipping them with everything from delivery beds to incubators. This Christmas help us deliver hope by giving more than 68,000 women access to improved health services, providing life-saving immunisations to 130,000 children under five and training more than 1,000 community health workers.
We will also work with local authorities to enable them to provide crucial maternal and child healthcare long term. ''It's a privilege to share with Christian Aid supporters how their efforts are helping to bring about change for poor communities in countries like Kenya '' says Stephen.
Until February 2015 the UK Government will double the difference each pound donated makes, up to the value of £5 million, as part of UK Aid Match.