LJMU midwives in The Gambia
27 March 2009
Pamela Brodie and Ashley Pedersen, two Level 3 Midwifery students, are embarking on a 6-week elective placement to The Gambia where they have decided to take their placement at the AFRICMED Clinic and other tertiary maternity centres in Senegambia.
The local hospital (Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital) and surrounding birthing centres cater for huge numbers of patients on budgets up to 150 times less than acceptable in westernised countries, and as a result are desperately short of, among other things, equipment. The donation therefore of products and money can be of huge benefit.
On the students' website, Ashley comments: “This we feel will give us an opportunity to observe how maternity services work in a developing country and to share what knowledge we have acquired in the past three years. As you can imagine, this is a terrific honour and shall improve our knowledge and experience greatly. Pamela and myself wish to give something in return for this privilege, and are fundraising for two charities based in The Gambia. These are 'Operation Save a Baby', run by the First Lady of The Gambia, and 'Gambia Education and Teaching Support' (GETSuk) a UK-registered charity founded by Francis Glynn who also runs the Gambian based charity Gambia Tourist Support."
You can read in more detail their plan for the journey, info about the charities and most importantly you can follow a blog on their progress: http://projectgambia2009.wordpress.com
Pictured l-r: Ashley Pedersen and Pamela Brodie
