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PROGRAMS
IMA is committed to bringing compassionate, life-saving care to women and children in low-resource, neglected areas of the world. We work collaboratively to create tailored programs that best meet the needs of international communities struggling with maternal/infant health issues.
We build capacity of individuals and communities to provide culturally-relevant programs that not only safeguard maternal health but also improve the long-term well-being of the communities in which we work.
Beginning with our efforts in Afghanistan in 2004, IMA has conducted successful projects in three countries.
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We partnered to create the very first accredited midwifery school in Afghanistan since the defeat of the Taliban.
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We partnered with the Colorado Haiti Project to initiate Home Based Life Saving Skills™ training in and around Petit Trou de Nippes, Haiti.
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Working with a group of highly motivated local clinicians, we created a busy birth center, now a registered NGO, serving tens of thousands of those in need in Soroti, Uganda. In a high-risk environment, in a country whose maternal and newborn mortality rates are staggeringly high, the Teso Safe Motherhood Project achieves outstanding and unparalleled results.
What makes IMA programs and projects so effective and durable?
WE PUT KINDNESS AND HUMAN DIGNITY FIRST
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We listen to communities. We are innovative. We tell the truth and keep promises.
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We do a proper needs assessment for any potential new site.
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We pride ourselves on being flexible as to the nature of each project. Different communities need different interventions.
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We work with communities who want us there, communities who are looking for what we do.
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We build local capacity. Quality education and training combined with low-tech, highly effective technologies enable local talent to create the kinds of institutions the community needs. Moving from a model of aid to community stabilization creates real sustainability.
Afghanistan
IMA helped to establish the first accredited midwifery school in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban.
The Community Midwife Training Program began in Bamiyan in 2004. In 2006, the first class of 22 midwives completed 18 months of classroom and clinical training, supervised by IMA nurses and midwives. The IMA volunteers brought the Afghan faculty along as well, and the school continues to run well. We are especially proud of the many trained midwives the Bamiyan School has produced. When IMA arrived in Afghanistan, the country's maternal mortality ratio was the highest in the world. That was mostly due to a lack of skilled care providers. Since midwifery education was established, Afghanistan no longer appears on the list of top ten countries with the highest maternal mortality. The Bamiyan Community Midwife Training Program, thriving to this day, has produced more than 2% of the midwives in Afghanistan.
Haiti
In collaboration with the Colorado Haiti Project, IMA brought Home Based Life Saving Skills trainings to Haiti.
IMA provided staff for the needs assessment, as well as the trainers for the first round of Home Based Life Skills Training in and around the community of Petit Trou de Nippes. The initial trainings were a huge success, and the local women’s groups conducted many additional trainings.
The impact of the trainings in the community was noticed by the Health Ministry and has led to additional support for the area.
Uganda
The Teso Safe Motherhood Project provided a safe birth for 1,414 mothers in 2019, while maintaining a maternal mortality rate of zero.
Escaping a brutal civil war in Uganda, 35,000 internally displaced people fled to the small town of Soroti. They overwhelmed an already fragile healthcare system and were in desperate need of maternal/infant health services.
With IMA's mentorship and support, an amazing group of locals developed the Teso Safe Motherhood Project (TSMP). In 2019, a staff of 44 Ugandans performed over 60,000 patient visits, provided family planning services to over 6,000 women and vaccinated 8,241 children. All these services are provided to the destitute population free of charge.
Between one hundred and one hundred and fifty babies are delivered each month at TSMP. In a country where maternal mortality is rising, the Teso Safe Motherhood Project has maintained a maternal mortality rate of ZERO.
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