In labour and on the road in Tanzania

I read an incredible story today.

It was the story of how Tanzanian president Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete was able to help one woman give birth safely.

She’d been in labour for three days and her family were trying to take her 28 miles to the nearest hospital – on a bicycle.

Hope and opportunity

It was great to read President Kikwete’s update in The Citizen, giving his very personal reasons for addressing the health-worker shortage in Africa.

“When I came into office in 2005, healthcare was the sixth largest budget expenditure,” he says. “Now it is the third largest after infrastructure and education, which indirectly have a relationship with health.”

Ending the unnecessary pain

“Women and children are still dying needlessly” the president says, explaining his commitment to the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.

This is a strategy we’ve worked to promote for years now, especially since the launch of our No Child Born to Die campaign a year ago. Unflagging belief and commitment will bring us nearer to achieving Millennium Development Goal 4.

It’s great to read such a determined backing of the global work to save mothers’ and babies’ lives.

Read President Kikwete’s full update.