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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Melany Ethridge: (972) 267-1111, [email protected], Kate Etue: (615) 481-8420 (m), [email protected]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Senator Bill Frist, M.D., announced today that Hope Through Healing Hands (HTHH), a Nashville-based global health organization, will partner with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create the Faith-Based Coalition for Healthy Mothers and Children Worldwide. The organization will be based in Nashville, Tenn., and led by Executive Director Jenny Dyer, Ph.D., who has been with HTHH since 2008.

HTHH was founded by Frist in 2004 to promote improved quality of life for citizens and communities around the world using health as a currency for peace. Now, through its new Coalition, it will focus on galvanizing faith leaders across the U.S. on the issues of maternal, newborn and child health in developing countries, with an emphasis on the benefits of healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies, including the voluntary use of methods for preventing pregnancy, not including abortion, that are harmonious with their values and religious beliefs.

“Maternal and Child Health issues are at the core of global health and saving lives,” says Doctor-Senator Frist. “We know that family planning, including access to contraception, plays a critical role in combating maternal mortality and enhancing newborn and child survival rates, addressing directly Millennium Development Goals #4 and #5.”

More than 220 million women worldwide who want to avoid pregnancy do not currently have access to effective contraceptives, information or services.

Support for healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies is one of the most cost-effective and powerful strategies to empower women to get more education, obtain better jobs, and contribute to the economic health of their families and communities.

“We are committed to leveraging our own networks in the United States to support maternal, newborn, and child health by promoting awareness and education on the life-saving benefits of healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies for mothers and children worldwide,” says Jenny Eaton Dyer, PhD. “We call on others to join this movement to save lives.”

HTHH and the Faith-Based Coalition for Healthy Mothers and Children Worldwide will meet with evangelical and conservative leaders throughout the U.S. with an appeal to support these initiatives, which will save the lives of mothers and children by greatly reducing the number of high-risk and unintended pregnancies that occur each year.

Hope Through Healing Hands is a Nashville-based nonprofit 501(c)(3) whose mission is to promote improved quality of life for citizens and communities around the world using health as a currency for peace. Senator Bill Frist, M.D., is the founder and chair of the organization, and Jenny Eaton Dyer, Ph.D., is the CEO/Executive Director.

Haiti Nursing Graduate Faculty

Two years ago, the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund granted $462,800 to Regis College to advance Haiti's future nursing leaders through a master's degree of nursing program in the country. The goal was to unite Haiti's government and higher education institutions to support nursing programs in their country. 

The grant enabled the country to elevate their nursing program to a higher level, which has resulted in sustaining nursing jobs, promoting healthcare standards, and transforming the health sector.

On February 18, 2014, the first twelve faculty graduates of the master's degree in nursing program from the University of Haiti. Twenty-four more faculty members will complete the program, who will in turn pass their education on to more than 4,000 students each year.

Read more at Regis College's website.

Over the last ten years, Ethiopia has implemented their Health Extension Worker (HEW) program building Health Posts with HEWs throughout the country. To date, there are some 38,000 HEWs; two at every post. This has amazing reach to communities whose individuals might otherwise have to walk for miles and miles just to have basic services for a sick child, contraception, or antenatal care. This being said, the Health Post does have limitations. The HEW cannot provide a high level of skilled care. For instance, women in Tigray are highly encouraged to take a “mobile ambulance” (i.e. stretcher) to the Health Center where they can have access to skilled health workers that are better prepared to manage complications during birth.
Upon the conclusion of the seventeen-year Ethiopian civil war, the region of Tigray, the northernmost province in Ethiopia, is the home to the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. Their late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who led the revolution and won is celebrated still across the country. Today marked the annual Tigray People’s Liberation Front Celebration and the town of Mekele took a holiday to celebrate in a public event.

Welcome to Addis!

Meeting First Lady Roman Tesfaye

Feb 19 2014

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has pulled together a congressional delegation trip to Ethopia, and they invited me to join them. In leading HTHH’s Faith-Based Coalition for Healthy Mothers and Children Worldwide, I was invited to meet the faith leaders here to learn their stories and the position on the progress of healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies here in Ethiopia.

FGHL Blog: Beth O'Connell - Part 3

Report from the Field

Feb 14 2014

We visited a malnourished and abused child, named Cesar, who is doing much better. My hosts and I visited him in the hospital yesterday and he looked like a different child. He had been given a much needed hair cut and had gained about five pounds. He was watching cars and motorcycles out of his window and jabbering away in Q’eqchi’ about them. We did understand “beep, beep!” He is expected to be transferred to a rehabilitation center next week.

What is the MDG5?

And how can you be involved in improving maternal health worldwide?

Feb 12 2014

Of all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), MDG5, or Improving maternal health, is critical for addressing other global health issues like child survival, extreme poverty and hunger. If Mom dies in childbirth or suffers severe complications, the entire family is in jeopardy. Kids may not be able to finish primary education in order to raise siblings. Mom may suffer from poor health and cannot maintain her job. Newborns lack a mother to nurture them in their first years of life.
The comprehensive report that I have been creating of a baseline study has proven to be a challenge and a great learning experience. I have learned how to use SPSS software more fully and gained a better understanding of application of biostatistics and epidemiologic concepts I learned in the classroom. Having to actually use information always brings a new level of understanding. I have called upon colleagues within my network at the ETSU College of Public Health to help me along the way. After finishing up some literature review for recommendations, my report will be ready to submit to the organization by February 14.
Day 1, Guatemala
I spent my first night in Guatemala City with Christian Aponte, director of CAFNIMA, my host organization. He helped me review the report I have been working on of the household survey data. We have been fine tuning it to be the most helpful to the organization and people. From there, I took a five-hour bus ride to Cobán and a two-hour truck ride to the Ulpán Valley.
Five years ago, Save the Children asked me to chair their Newborn and Child Survival Campaign. In 1990, over 12 million kids were dying every year; that is, over 33,000 children were dying every single day from preventable, treatable disease.

Today, the statistics have changed. We have almost cut that number in half. The goal for Millennium Development Goal #4 to reduce child mortality by 2/3 is within our grasp. The numbers show that almost 6.6 million children die per year, or about 18,000 children per day. The good news is that we are making progress.

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