Combatting maternal and infant mortality rates in Nigeria

What’s the issue?

According to UNICEF, Nigeria has the fourth highest maternal mortality rate globally (576 yearly), with women of childbearing age exposed to a host of health issues surrounding birth. In addition, an alarming 262,000 babies lose their lives during childbirth every year, marking Nigeria as the nation with the second highest infant mortality rate in the world and magnifying the urgent need for intervention. These devastating numbers reflect the dire circumstances faced by mothers and their children, perpetuated by debilitating challenges such as poverty, limited access to clean water, inadequate sanitation, and hygiene facilities, as well as poor access to education.  

How are we addressing it?

Recognising the gravity of this crisis and guided by a resolute determination to create sustainable change, our teams in Nigeria collaborated with Airen Foundation in 2023, a non-profit organisation devoted to offering comprehensive solutions to the challenges faced by African women, with a particular focus on maternal health through their ‘Ene Project’ – a transformative initiative aimed at tackling Nigeria's alarming rates of maternal and infant mortality at the grassroots level. The project focuses on low-income communities, providing tailored educational and sponsorship programmes for mothers.

We focused our aid inIkota, a low-income community in Lagos state with limited access to healthcare and set out with a clear mission: to provide education on best practices for fostering healthy pregnancies, safe deliveries, healthy infancy and access to essential antenatal care.

We supported 50 mothers and infants living in the Ikota community by providing: access to antenatal care and safe delivery; education on best practices for a safe delivery and healthy infancy; delivery kits, as well as infant care packages with maternal essentials; hygiene essentials; and food supplies (raw and cooked) for the mothers and children.

 What’s the lasting impact?

Through our collaboration with the Airen Foundation, and Ikate Primary Healthcare Centre, we implemented holistic solutions that addressed not only the immediate health needs of mothers and infants, but also the underlying systemic issues that perpetuate these challenges. The CSR project focused on raising awareness on the importance of pre and post-natal care, post-partum depression, elevating nutritional, hygiene and sanitation standards, fostering safe childbirth practices to pave the way for improved maternal and child health outcomes in Nigeria.

Our journey towards improving maternal and infant health is far from over, but we are proud of the transformative impact we have achieved so far, making a meaningful difference in the lives of several women and children and the ripple effect of our initiative in creating lasting change.