At the heart of a country like Uganda's future lies the education of women. That is why midwives, in an area of the planet that has one for every 13,000 inhabitants, are the true agents of change. An editorial by the president of Fondazione Ambrosoli.
Ask yourselves why God chose you among so many. The future of the country is in your hands; show your gratitude for this opportunity by working every day with dedication and commitment.Sister Carmel Abwot, director of the midwifery school in Kalongo, during the diploma ceremony for students
Over the years, visiting Kalongo and coming to know this place — so complex yet so beautiful — in northern Uganda, I have come to understand what it truly means to train a midwife. In Uganda, it means first and foremost educating a woman. An educated woman is a healthier, more independent woman. One who is able to care for herself, her children and her community. A woman given the opportunity to fulfil her potential and make a difference to the country's growth. And yet, even today, in Uganda this opportunity is far too often denied to women.
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In Uganda, women are the backbone of the family: they personally manage the home, work in the fields and fetch water; yet despite all this, they continue to face discrimination. They are denied access to working life, healthcare and education. The fertility rate is extremely high: each woman has an average of 6 children, and 15 per cent give birth to their first child between the ages of 15 and 19. More than one in five women aged between 15 and 49 has experienced some form of violence; much of this violence takes place within the home.
The United Nations has calculated that Uganda has a very high gender inequality index of 0.522, driven by high maternal mortality, a high adolescent fertility rate and limited opportunities for women's emancipation, placing the country 121st out of 149 analysed.
In rural areas, where 90 per cent of the population lives, only 46 per cent of mothers attend antenatal check-ups during pregnancy, and only 53 per cent have access to assisted delivery. The majority of pregnant women undergo no preventive health checks at all, and it is often traditional birth attendants who assist women in labour.
Healthcare facilities are far away and difficult to reach, so women turn to health centres only in cases of serious emergency — often when it is too late to save their lives and those of their children. The maternal mortality rate is extremely high: 343 per 100,000 live births (in Italy it is 3). The neonatal mortality rate per 1,000 live births is 19 (in Italy it is 4).
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For all of this, and because we firmly believe in "saving Africa with Africans," we have taken up the legacy of Father Giuseppe Ambrosoli and fight every day with all our strength to support the Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital and the St. Mary Midwifery Training School, which he founded in Kalongo in the late 1950s.
Father Giuseppe Ambrosoli, doctor and missionary, arrived in Kalongo in 1956 and immediately understood how indispensable it was to invest in the health and education of women in order to save as many mothers and children as possible and to guarantee a better life for hundreds of thousands of people. He had grasped that providing women's education and training represented a concrete and sustainable model for the country's growth.
So in 1959, just two years after the creation of the hospital that today bears his name, he founded the midwifery school, now recognised by the local Ministry of Health as one of the best in the country. Over sixty years, more than 1,300 midwives have graduated from this institution of excellence, ensuring medical continuity in the hospital's maternity ward and professional independence for young Ugandan women.
At the Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital we fight every day for life. To protect it and guarantee it. And "our" midwives, in an area of the planet that has one for every 13,000 inhabitants, are the most powerful tool we can count on. They are the true agents of change, capable of making a difference — often between life and death — for thousands of women and children every year.
Thanks to intensive awareness-raising, training and care work, in the past year alone, 6,045 antenatal visits were carried out at Kalongo hospital, with 5,301 admissions to the maternity ward, 3,550 assisted deliveries, of which 556 were caesarean sections. Being able to rely on an adequate number of qualified midwives, ready to assist women professionally before, during and after childbirth, is essential to saving as many lives as possible.
We want to expand the school's capacity from a structural standpoint and improve the educational quality of its training programmes, accompanying and supporting the school in the process of creating a nationally recognised degree course in Midwifery. It is a project we believe in deeply, because we are convinced — now more than ever — that investing in quality women's education is the key to a future of sustainable growth and human and social development, not only for the African continent but for the entire world. A bold vision, one we can only achieve together with those who support us with trust and passion.