Projects

The Birthing Kit Project has three goals:

To make and distribute birthing kits to women in remote and rural regions of developing countries, targeting predominantly home birth, where the only assistance may be from a Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA) or with no assistance at all.
To establish funded health training programmes for health workers and traditional birth attendants, in consultation with local stake holders and health authorities in the course design and content.
To encourage sustainability through in-country kit production and funding of training programmes.

The kits are distributed with the assistance of a health professional who gives instructions on how to use the kits correctly and dispose of the waste safely.

Annually over 140,000 women who give birth in remote regions of developing countries are the recipients of our kits.

Partners

The Foundation works with a number of partner organisations to deliver our programmes. These partners are carefully screened to comply with our many conditions regarding correct use of kits, disposal of waste, nondiscrimination with distribution of kits and observing the humanitarian rights of mothers and babies.

Our partners are essential to our kit distribution and training programmes.

Click here to find out more.

VIETNAM

Vietnam was one of the first countries where the Birthing Kit Project expanded. There are many Australian organisations based in Vietnam carrying out humanitarian work. The maternal mortality rate is 130:100,000 live births. The remote mountainous regions with ethnic minority groups have a higher maternal mortality rate. The BKFA targets our kits for these regions where there are many home births.

ETHIOPIA

Ethiopia is a country of 80 million people in Sub Saharan Africa where 2.75 million women become pregnant every year and 93% deliver in the home. The issue of unhygienic births is of particular concern in remote areas where there are high rates of poverty. The local customs that involve women choosing to give birth at home, together with the mountainous terrains, lack of roads and inaccessibility of health services in these areas, particularly where there are nomadic lifestyles, provided the impetus for the provision of clean birth kits.

KENYA

In Kenya 70% of women deliver at home and traditional birth attendants have no access to materials, hence the importance of a clean birth kit. The BKFA has worked in Kenya since 2005 supplying kits and since 2008 we included the distribution of kits with a 3 - 5 day midwifery training seminar. At these training programmes 80 or so TBAs (Traditional Birth Attendants) from remote regions are educated and given a training manual in the local language. Some kits are allocated for distribution to remote regions.

AFGHANISTAN

Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, estimated at 1900/100,000 live births, and a lifetime risk of maternal death is approximately 1:9. The women are either geographically restricted or culturally not allowed to use health facilities.
BKFA started working in Afghanistan in 2006. The project grew as more organisations were recommended to our project from organisations like UNICEF. BKFA has targeted Afghanistan as a country of high priority for our future support.

PNG

Papua New Guinea was the very first country that received our kits in 1999. The success of the project in PNG initiated our passion to spread to other needy countries. The lifetime risk of death in childbirth is 1:7 in rural PNG with a maternal mortality rate of 300:100,000 live births. The need was great and the impact from the first 100 kits showed that at least anecdotally there was a significant reduction in maternal deaths.