In Africa, women face complications or even death during childbirth, without access to safe maternal health care. Currently it is estimated that over 300,000 women die each year during pregnancy and childbirth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many others are left with major injuries such as obstetric fistulas. 

In partnership with the Barbara May Foundation, Anglican Aid is helping address this problem by operating hospitals where women can deliver their babies, free of charge. Christian midwives, doctors and fistula surgeons are running education workshops to promote safe birth practices, while also identifying women in regional areas who have been neglected by their communities postpartum. Women like Rehema:

Rehema has been suffering from a fistula for over 30 years. Before leaving, her husband beat her so badly that it damaged her vision. She used to love reading her Bible but for years she was unable to do so. She came for treatment at our hospital in Tanzania recently and was not only cured of her fistula, but she was given a large print Bible that she could read. She was so overjoyed she literally jumped and clapped with happiness. She was seen reading her Bible in the ward every day. God’s word truly is a deep well of life.

Rehema’s healing is transformative. For many, untreated obstetric fistula causes incontinence, infection, kidney disease, intense shame and social segregation. Restored health means re-integrating into the workforce, families remaining in-tact, freedom and dignity. 

Anglican Aid believes that all people are loved by God, and this means they are all deserving of our care. We are proud to support the Barbara May Foundation which is sharing and showing the love of Christ to the most vulnerable in our world ‘in word and deed’. Thank you for your partnership in this work! 

1 John 5:14 reminds us: This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Join us as we bring these prayer points before God and sharing them with your churches and Bible studies:

• Give thanks for the infrastructure that enables doctors, surgeons and midwives to perform safe and effective procedures.
• For the provision of another doctor so that the existing staff, some of whom have not had any meaningful break, may rest.
• For the plans for a maternity ward extension, that skilled workers would be available and inflationary pressures would not obstruct progress being made.
• For the patients who receive care from the foundation, that they would return home as a witness to others of God’s grace and provision.