Women's Health Kit ($80)

Pregnancy and childbirth should be a time of joy, not worry. But in poorer parts of the world, those months are full of uncertainty and danger for mothers. Comprehensive health clinics that provide critical, compassionate health care can help alleviate these concerns.

Why Help Is Needed

In some of the world’s most isolated areas, women suffer high mortality rates during pregnancy and childbirth. Much of this suffering can be avoided by empowering communities to take additional preventive health measures.

Mercy Corps In Action

Mercy Corps trains midwives, offers health education and provides clinical services to women, some of whom have never visited a doctor. The benefits of these programs frequently spread beyond the women who attend. By returning to their villages to share what they’ve learned, these women educate others in their community about healthy pregnancy, childbirth and sanitation practices.

Sokina's Story

Ninety-three percent of the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan is covered in mountains. It's a breathtaking landscape for families who inhabit the Rasht Valley, which remains a culturally isolated place largely untouched by the outside world. But the isolation also means that, in most small villages, formal medical care is nonexistent and even basic hygiene practices are not widely followed.

Mercy Corps is helping improve village health by training local volunteers to teach basic practices around nutrition, hygiene and maternity.

In her tiny village of Mullobadal, 31-year-old Sokina teaches the basics of safe motherhood to about 20 colorfully dressed women seated on the covered porch of a mud-brick house. Tacked to one wall are pictograms that illustrate proper handwashing, how to keep food covered and good latrine maintenance. "We knew a lot of these things," says Sokina, herself a mother of three, "but we didn't pay enough attention to them before."

A heightened awareness of women's health led to a community-wide effort to better respond to dangerous complications, such as anemia, that can arise during pregnancy. Sokina recently collected $1 from each household to cover the cost to transport pregnant women to the nearest doctor.

Some Rasht Valley villages in which we work are accessible only by footpaths. But we're making sure that for women in these picturesque places, all paths lead to better health.

Women's Health Kit ($80)
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Purchase of a Mercy Kit is a symbolic gift that supports Mercy Corps' worldwide programs to help children and families in need. The Breastfeeding Kit, Climate Change Kit, Fuel-Efficient Stove Kit, Cricket Farm Kit, Send an Orphan to School Kit, Plant a Tree Kit, Play to Heal Kit and Uganda Farm Kit supports those specific project funds. Proceeds from the sale of other Mercy Kits will be used where most needed.