I am going to Uganda.

For a little over eight months I will be calling a university campus in East Africa “home.” I will be working with Save the Mothers, a Canadian charity, which runs a Master in Public Health Leadership (MPHL) program at Uganda Christian University.

The program is designed to equip working professionals from diverse backgrounds with the skills they need to promote infant and maternal health within their sphere of influence. It is saving the lives of mothers and their babies. Past students have included Members of Parliament, journalists, teachers, clergy and military personnel. They are now empowered with critical knowledge to create positive social change. As an intern, I will be working as an assistant to Dr. Jean Chamberlain Froese, the Executive Director of the program.

In Africa, pregnancy is one of the greatest threats to a woman’s life.

There are also high numbers of children who struggle through infancy and do not survive beyond the age of five. Last summer on a mission trip to Zambia, I encountered the painful reality of insufficient support for maternal and infant health. Dalton was one of the men employed by the grassroots organization my team was working with. The year before, his wife had given birth. Although the baby appeared to be born healthy, the child would not breastfeed. Whether through fear or misunderstanding on the part of the parents, they did not seek the necessary medical assistance in time. The baby died. This senseless death was unfathomable to me. Hearing about it broke my heart. Dalton is a friend.

My friend had a baby that died a preventable death.

The sad reality is, there are countless other stories like this one. Often mothers do not recognize when they or their babies need medical attention. Sometimes the nearest health clinic is a great distance away. Costly transportation puts care beyond their reach. Even for those women who do reach a medical centre, they often find a hospital that is both understaffed and poorly resourced. Every year around 6,000 women die in Uganda due to childbirth and pregnancy related complications, compared with about 20 women in Canada.

Lack of education, poor transportation and inadequate resources all serve to prevent mothers and their babies from receiving the medical care they desperately need.

It is such an honour for me to be working with Save the Mothers. This is an organization that is making a difference. In the midst of a desperate situation, Save the Mothers through the MPHL program is empowering leaders to champion the cause of mothers and infants in East Africa.

If you would like to stay informed about my work as an intern with Save the Mothers, please follow my blog to receive regular updates. I will be departing for Uganda on August 28, 2014.