Source: Xperedon
Dates set for Nobel Prize 2012 announcements but what about an African midwife as a future winner?
The date is now released for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize announcement...
Meanwhile, a humanitarian charity is stepping up its campaign for an African midwife to be honoured in the future...
The next Nobel Peace Prize recipient will be honoured on Friday October 12 and there are thought to be 231 nominations for this year's award, with Bill Gates amongst those in the mix as a potential winner.
WikiLeaks whistle-blower Bradley Manning and Russian human rights campaigner Svetlana Gannushkina are other nominees...
The award is chosen by a panel selected by the Norwegian government...
However, in the background a campaign is gathering by an African health NGO to back its midwife nominee for a future award, and raise awareness about the vital issue of maternal health across Africa.
The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), the charity that runs health programmes across Africa with a special emphasis on women and children, is calling on supporters to back its drive to recognise one of the unsung heroes of Africa...
It wants the Norwegian peace panel to award the Nobel Peace Prize to African midwife, Esther Madudu, as a symbol of all African midwives, as part of AMREF’s Stand Up For African Mothers campaign.
AMREF, the charity that received the World Federation of Public Health Associations 2012 Organisational Award earlier this year for its "outstanding achievements in and contributions to the field of public health" is encouraging supporters to sign its petition to support Esther Madudu, for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015, a symbol of the battle of African midwives to save lives and the need for greater investment in midwives across Africa...
Esther Madudu is a midwife trained by AMREF and is a representative of the charity’s efforts to improve maternal mortality rates in Africa.
One of the main goals of AMREF is to achieve 15,000 trained midwives by 2015 and also to reduce by 25 per cent maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa...
Each year, 1.5 million African children lose their mother.
And every year in sub-Saharan Africa 200,000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth...
AMREF's mantra is that Africa needs mothers and mothers need midwives!
To support African mothers and their pressing need for African midwives, AMREF and its supporters are asking the Nobel Committee to consider Esther Madudu for the 2015 Nobel honour...
Madudu is an enrolled midwife employed by the Government of Uganda who works in Katine District. Midwives in the region typically deliver 45 to 50 babies each month and run antenatal services, including delivery; and post-natal care amongst their duties...
AMREF's Stand Up for African Mothers is an international campaign that aims to raise public awareness and donor action about the dramatic situation of maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa and the need to train African midwives to improve the fortunes of African mothers.
As well as international support AMREF is also encouraging Africans to support the campaign to raise funds for their own healthcare development...
AMREF is presenting its Esther Madudu Nobel campaign as a crusade celebrating all African midwives, the unrecognised heroes helping African mothers!