By Joanne Ratsara
The World Health Organization and the Seventh-day Adventist Church are kicking off an unprecedented global partnership aimed at reducing infant and maternal mortality rates.
This is the first time that the WHO, the public health agency of the United Nations, has partnered with a faith-based organization on a global scale, said Annette Mwansa Nkowane, WHO’s lead nurse and a main proponent of the five-year project to educate more midwifes.
The WHO approached the Adventist Church with the proposal for the project after a major health conference organized by the church in Geneva, Switzerland. The Geneva-based WHO has identified a global lack of qualified midwives as a contributing factor in the deaths of mothers and babies and the church’s global network of educators and hospitals as a way to address the shortfall.
