Ugandan First Lady endorses Stand Up for African Mothers Campaign

AMREF Uganda officially launched the Stand Up for African Mothers campaign in the country on 3rd October 2012.

The well attended event was presided over by First Lady Mama Janet Museveni at State House, Entebbe, and was attended by government ministers and officials, diplomats, corporate executives, AMREF Board members, staff and the media.

Stand Up for African Mothers is an international campaign by AMREF that aims to train 15,000 midwives in Africa by 2015 to help close the gap in meeting Millennium Development Goal 5, which aims to reduce maternal deaths.
Mama Janet, who is championing the campaign and is the patron of Safe Motherhood in Uganda, said in her keynote address: “This campaign resonates very well with Uganda’s priorities to invest in the improvement of women’s health. We all need to support the campaign and to raise awareness about it in order to provide Ugandan and African mothers with midwives during pregnancy and childbirth.

Esther Madudu and Janet Museveni

From Left : Midwife Esther Madud and Uganda First lady Janet Museveni share a moment at the Stand Up for African Mothers launch

As part of the campaign, AMREF is fronting the nomination of Ugandan midwife Esther Madudu for the Nobel Peace Prize 2015 as a representative of all African midwives, to honour them for the work they do in saving the lives of mothers and children. To symbolise the launch of the campaign in Uganda, the First Lady signed the online petition in support of Esther’s nomination.
Other key speakers at the event included AMREF Deputy Board Chair Dr Noerine Kaleeba, AMREF Director General Dr Teguest Guerma, State Minister of Health Hon Sarah Opendi, AMREF Uganda Advisory Council Chair Professor George B. Kirya and the AMREF Uganda Country Director Berhanu Abenet.

Before the event, Dr Teguest Guerma held interviews with major Ugandan radio and television stations on issues that affect the health of African women, how the campaign will address some of them and how Ugandans can participate in the campaign. The interviews and the launch event received prominent publicity in the media.