The inspiration for Project Selma came from this remarkable documentary (in Arabic). It tells the story of three kabilas (volunteer traditional midwives). One has delivered over 4000 babies, travelling from mountain village to mountain village on a donkey. They don’t have access to simple pain relief or sterile equipment. Watching it, it seems that a tiny amount of financial support could make a big difference.
A quick web search reveals other avenues: eight hours from Marrakesh, this maternity hospital in Tazarine (in French, pdf) was built for 69,300 Euros.
A recent Economist article, lessons from a frugal innovator, offers inspiration from Indian healthcare: ‘LifeSpring Hospitals, a chain of small maternity hospitals around Hyderabad… offers normal deliveries attended by private doctors for just $40 in its general ward, and Caesarean sections for about $140′. We’d love it if Project Selma was market driven and self-sustaining.
In all, we are slightly daunted by the amount of information to absorb. But we are aided by some great advisers. In particular, it was wonderful to discover that our aunt has written a book on pregnancy and birthing in Africa.
We are in the research stage and we’d love to hear any ideas. If you have any suggestions, or recommendations for reading, please leave a comment below.
Some sites to look at:
http://litliberation.org/
This aimed to mobilise the technorati to use their influence to fun reading projects.
They had specific targets to aim for (i.e. 10K for a library).
Aim to create a scalable fundraising model that would grow and grow.
Raised a huge amount of money in just 30 days.
http://www.roomtoread.org/
This is the international charity they linked up with that focuses on education and literacy.
hi both
how is it all going and how are you both doing? I’m imagining from my own experience of bereavement that you’re having good days and very bad days.
I’m sorry I haven’t made a donation yet to Project Selma but I will do this week.
Also, I would like to talk about Project Selma in a future blog post for the Red Cross which might generate interest in/donations to your charity. Would you be ok with that?
Lastly I’m thinking of you and here to offer any editorial help/guidance you may need (although the site so far looks brilliant).
Much love
Alix xx
hey Alix
Thanks for the message. You are absolutely right: we are having good days and bad days. (When I first heard that expression I thought it sounded too self-evident to mean anything. As we go through the grieving process, the more it seems like that is pretty much all you can say with about it.)
Definitely, feel free to mention Project Selma in a Red Cross blog post. That said, there should be much more to talk about in a month or two – maybe it is better to wait till then?
We would be keen to take you up on your offer of editorial guidance. Again, that might be better in a month or two. As we are moving to the next phase, we will need to think much more about the copy.
Speak soon,
andy