Welcome!

Welcome to Project HOW’s blog site!

We’ve set up this site as a space to discuss maternal and child health issues and as a means to follow Project HOW’s projects in West Africa. Providing quality healthcare to those in need is a monumental task that requires a team effort and so we’d like to use this site to collaborate and share ideas. We look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions!

Project HOW was originally conceived during a medical mission to Northern Nigeria in 2009. During the mission, the pain and suffering caused by the lack of affordable, long-term healthcare was devastating and was particularly noticeable in the women and children. The strong and courageous women that we met on the trip served as the impetus to start a non-profit that could help women in need, regardless of their income, religion or social status. And so Project HOW – Helping Other Women, was born.

According to the UN’s Millenium Development Goals Report, every year over half a million women die from prevantable complications of pregnancy or childbirth. In subsahara Africa, women have a 6% chance of dying from these complications. Similarily, an estimated 10 million children die before they reach their fifth birthday, mostly due to preventable causes. The Report found that one of the keys to improving maternal and child health was to “promote comprehensive and universal coverage of primary health-care systems, accompanied by sustained delivery of health services and women’s education programmes.” This strategy falls in line with Project HOW’s mission to provide the full continuum of healthcare for women and children.