Malian Women in Action for Peace

Merci femmes du Mali de votre participation! Thanks Malian Women for your cooperation!

Group de Discussion Intensif à Bamako (CEDEAO/FEMMES POUR L'AFRIQUE FUNDATION). Intensive Focus Groups in Bamako (ECOWAS/WOMEN FOR AFRICA FOUNDATION).

Interactive meetings with around 80 Malian women leaders. They have come from all over the country. Many of them have gone through a hard trip in order to meet up with us. Thanks. 

Reunion avec 80 femmes du Mali. 

Next phase: training in Bamako (May 2014)

Prochain phase: Atelier de formation, Bamako Mai 2014

It's been a privilege to facilitate this discussion.

African Women Crans Montana Forum

It will be an honour for me to participate in the African Women Crans Montana Forum.  I will talk about the conflict in Mali in the session about women's contribution to peace and security in Africa. 

The Forum will take place in Brussels from March 19th to March 21st. 

You can access the programme here. 

KUFUOR FOUNDATION IN GHANA

February 2014: With President of Women for Africa Foundation, Ms. Maria Teresa Fernández de la Vega, and President of Kufuor Foundation, Mr. John A. Kufuor. 

Mr. Kufuor is the former President of Ghana and serves currently as Director of the World Bank Programme: Water and Sanitation for All. He is also one of the United Nations Secretary General's Special Envoy for Climate Change and Envoy for Neglected Tropical Diseases. 

It was a very interesting meeting where both Presidents committed to work together within the framework of the Foundations they both chair. 

We also met the Director of Kufuor Foundation and we are already examining concrete projects we can implement together. 

MATERNAL MORTALITY IN GHANA

Maternal mortality has been reduced in Ghana, but there is still a long way to go. The rate of unassisted deliveries is still too high. Even women who get to the hospital have to line up in labour because there are not enough either delivery attendants or nurses. Unassisted deliveries are the main cause of obstetric fistula, another serious problem for women in many African countries, including Ghana. Women for Africa Foundation wants to contribute to improve maternal health and to reduce maternal mortality. The major programme in this field is STOP FISTULA, which is being carried out in Liberia. In Ghana one of the participants to the Ghana Wins Programme on Health, Nurse Mabel Kissiwah, is implementing a project aimed at increasing the rate of assisted deliveries with the cooperation of queen mothers in the Ashanti region. Nurse Kissiwah counts on the cooperation of a group of queen mothers who are trying to rise awareness on the need to go to the hospitals to give birth. 

Watch this video to get a clearer idea of the situation in some hospitals in Ghana. Click HERE.

MISSION TO ACCRA - FEBRUARY 2014

Mission to Accra, Ghana, with the President of Women for AFrica Foundation, Maria Teresa Fernández de la Vega. It is always refreshing to be back in this country full of women's leaders. There is a lot we can learn from the work they are doing.

Our goal this time was to present the first positive outcomes of the projects we are running in Ghana. We want to make these projects sustainable, and for that we need the support of Ghanaian civil society, Ghanaian business community and of the Ghanaian government.