Save the Mothers “Pioneers” Graduate

By Thomas Froese

MUKONO -- Save the Mothers, a unique training program at Uganda Christian University that trains professionals to help save Uganda’s vulnerable mothers, has fired another salvo into the war on maternal mortality with the graduation of its first class.

Eight Save the Mothers (STM) students graduated as STM’s pioneering graduates, part of a ceremony at Uganda Christian University (UCU) for 594 graduates and more than 1,000 guests earlier in October.

Several university officials noted the importance of the STM Master Degree graduates, including UCU’s vice chancellor Stephen Noll, who told the large crowd that Canadian Dr. Jean Chamberlain Froese, can be proud as “the mother and founder of this program, of which this degree is a part.”

Noll also acknowledged Dr. Florence Mirembe, STM’s Ugandan director, and former chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Makerere University.

Earlier, Alex Kagume, UCU’s deputy vice chancellor of academic affairs, praised STM in UCU’s newspaper The Standard, noting its “first-class students” from “responsible positions in society.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ve learnt to transform Uganda’s policies and practices for safe motherhood,” added Doug Fountain, the head of UCU’s Health Sciences.

Alice Mutungi, a physician from Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, was the top STM graduate, followed by Catherine Kizza, a journalist with The New Vision.

Also graduated are Christine Kajungu and Joan Mugenzi, both of World Vision, Bright Asiimwe and Susan Anago of Children Christian Fund, Enid Mwebaza of Mulago Hospital, and Eliphaz Muhindi of Compassion International.

“It was a very proud day for the students and our program,” said Dr. Chamberlain Froese.

Kizza noted that she waited for 10 years to fulfill her dream of promoting maternal health through her media work. The advent of the STM programme was “an answer to prayer,” she said, calling the studies “interesting, enlightening and empowering.”

Ten others in STM’s pioneer class of 18 students remain on track for next graduation. STM’s second class of 25, and third class of 30 students, are also continuing their studies and community projects. Some 132 applied for STM’s most recent intake of 25.

STM is also now constructing a 525 m Ugsh building at UCU, named after Dr. Mirembe.

Eleven STM representatives from Canada and Uganda were also part of the 1,500 maternal health advocates from around the world who met in London, UK Oct.18 to 20 at Women Deliver, to strategize how to better tackle this global blight.

This group included Hon. Sylvia Ssinabulya, an STM student and an MP from Mityana, who has organized a network of 38 female Parliamentarians to advocate for safe motherhood. She also introduced a resolution of Parliament of safe motherhood last December.

About 6,000 Ugandan mothers die in childbirth every year, some of the more than 500,000 that die globally. Three in five Ugandan maternal deaths are aged 13 to 24. For every death three infants die, four other children are left behind, and 35 other surviving mothers are disabled.

Last century, more women died from childbirth than soldiers killed in either world war, and from 1980 to 2000, childbirth claimed more women than AIDS. The New Vision (Uganda) November 2, 2007