This is a short story about Life for African Mothers connecting the dots-- for compassionate providers and women in the lowest resource countries.
When we first spoke to Angela Gorman of Life for African Mothers we were really intrigued by her model and inspired commitment to women globally. First, like Maternova, she was interested in connecting Product A to Point B. She realized that women were dying, thousands each day, for lack of a tiny pill that costs just 30 cents.That pill? misoprostol. With bureaucracy and counterfeiters making it nearly impossible to obtain locally, Angela devised a brilliant plan to carry in this lifesaving medicine in person.
But with all great plans that are hatched, there's always details to consider; like should she open a clinic in country, or carry in small quantities through her own donation, Neither of these options struck Angela as the right one.
Angela's model was to raise funds to send the misoprostol tablets directly to trusted health personnel. It was devilishly simple. Why trusted health personnel? She needed to find people who had only an interest in saving women's lives-- not in reselling the pills or using them for relatives or letting them simply sit on the office shelves.
We were very intrigued. And furthermore, Life for African mothers has a very interesting philosophy-- they do not share with women the fact that these medicines were donated from another country. They do not want the women to know that their own lives didn't matter enough.
We agree with Angela Gorman and her organization, that there is simply not time to build out the health systems-- for certain groups of women immediate action is needed. We were lucky enough to work with Angela Gorman to supply a hospital in southern DRC and have received the first report (in French) of 60 women saved in just the last three months. For 30 cents a life.
