Black History Month is not only an opportunity to remember people
and events shaping our past, but also a time to reflect on—and
challenge—the current conditions African communities are facing.

This African History Month you can make a difference by supporting
the building of a birthing clinic in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Thurs. Feb
24th African People’s Education and Defense Fund (APEDF) and Uhuru
Solidarity Movement are hosting a “Stop the Hemorrhaging” tour event
at William Way Center in Center City.

The disproportionately high death rates amongst African mothers
and babies makes infant and maternal health one of the most critical
threats to the future of African families the world over.

The All African People’s Development and Empowerment Project
(AAPDEP) is sponsoring a tour during Black History Month to increase
awareness of this neglected issue, while also generating resources for
a clinic in Sierra Leone, which suffers from the highest global rates of
maternal mortality.

This event will also expose the grave health disparities faced by the
African community right here in Philadelphia – in stress related and
curable diseases, healthy food access and health care. APEDF will be
kicking off a new APEDF health program series to create community
health solutions. Uhuru Furniture and APEDF are calling on all our
friends to participate in this important project.

The statistics are shocking and indisputable, yet often remain
unreported.

Women in sub-Saharan Africa face a maternal mortality rate a hundred
times greater than that of “developed” countries and nearly one in ten
infants will not to live to the age of one year.

And black women in the US are four times more likely to die of
pregnancy related complications than their white counterparts, with
black babies dying at more than twice the rate of white infants.

Headlining the tour will be Nurse Mary Koroma and AAPDEP Director
Dr. Aisha Fields. Nurse Mary has dedicated her life to saving those of
mothers and babies in her native Sierra Leone.
She is a certified Nurse Midwife who stepped down from her secure
position in a government hospital to work within the communities most
in need.

With few able to even afford what passes as government health care,
she witnessed expectant women and infants senselessly dying and
suffering, as the massive wealth of Sierra Leone that could provide
quality health care is looted.

As a nurse midwife, whose job it is to save lives and bring new life
into the world, she could no longer be a part of an apparatus that
contributed to the deaths of thousands of women and children.

Motivated by self-determination and willingness to use her skills for
the purpose they were intended for, Nurse Mary erected a make shift
clinic in an Allentown Community.

Her facility is just sticks, dirt floor and a straw bed but she cares for
the people who cannot access government hospitals.

She has delivered over 3000 babies in her career and is a continued
resource to her community; a community that not only depends on her
for infant and maternal care but also for general medical care.

Nurse Mary recognizes that the problem of infant and maternal
mortality is too wide spread to solve alone.

With access to skilled health personnel so limited in Sierra Leone,
many families rely on traditional birth attendants who often do not
have the training to adequately deal with complications.

In addition to the work in her Allentown clinic, Nurse Mary provides
support and training to a network of birth attendants in order to
ensure that as many women as possible have access to the care they
deserve.

In order to further develop her capacity to serve the women and
babies in her community, AAPDEP is bringing Nurse Mary to the US to
undergo training at The Birth Place, a birthing center, which is owned
and operated by African midwife, Jennie Joseph.

Jennie has developed a midwifery model of care which has become
renowned for improving birth outcomes and helping women reach full-
term with healthy babies.

Nurse Mary will then return to Sierra Leone to pass on this knowledge
to her network of birth attendants.

AAPDEP Director Dr. Aisha Fields stated “AAPDEP recognizes that
African self-determination is key to challenging this situation, where
African mothers and babies are needlessly dying during a process
which is meant to give life.

“Unlike charity organizations, which only treat symptoms, all of
AAPDEP’s work is tied into the wider struggle for African control of
Africa’s resources.

“AAPDEP is spearheaded by Africans for Africans and organizes the
trained sector of the African population to use their skills for the
development of our Africa and African communities everywhere.”

Get involved:
Come to an Open Meeting to build this tour Sunday Feb 20th @ 7pm
@ Uhuru Furniture 1220 Spruce St. Phila RSVP 215-546-9617

Call 215-546-9617 to participate in the APEDF health program. Check
our website @ APEDF.org

Support the building of the maternity clinic by making a donation at
http://developmentforafrica.org/donate.shtml

> Learn more about
project
 www.developmentforafrica.org

Saturday, Feb 19th- 21st
InPDUM Convention
(tabling)
3117 W. Master Street
Philadelphia, PA

Thursday, Feb 24th
Harambee Charter School
638-640 N. 66th Street
Philadelphia, PA

check website for update on time

Thursday, Feb 24th
Uhuru Furniture & APEDF
William Way Community Center
1315 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA
7:00pm - 9:30pm