Sometimes it’s amazing how much you can help, through something so little…

In rural Papua New Guinea one in seven women die in childbirth! Yep, that’s right, 1 in 7 women die in childbirth! That’s a shocking statistic to say the least. To give birth to a child a mother has a 15% chance of dying, can you imagine?

A friend of mine, Adriel Booker, in Australia works with YWAM Ships, a ministry that is currently working on delivering medical help into Papua New Guinea. She is a Mom, blogger and fellow YWAMer who has a strong passion for helping other mothers in need. To help expectant mothers in Papua New Guinea she has started a program called Bloggers for Birth Kits to help reduce maternal mortality in rural Papua New Guinea.

The way to help is so simple that anyone can do it…

For as little as a $2.00 donation you can purchase a Birth Kit. The Birth Kit is very simple, but according to the Birthing Kit Foundation can greatly help to reduce the incidence of infant and maternal mortality and morbidity. The kit includes:

• 1 plastic sheet to provide a clean birthing surface
• 1 bar of soap for clean hands during the birthing process and to clean the umbilical stump
• 1 pair of plastic gloves for clean hands
• 1 sterile scalpel blade to cut the umbilical cord
• 3 cords / pieces of strong string to tie the umbilical chord
• 5 gauze squares to clean the baby and mother

The kit is simple, yet effective. Adriel made up her own (which you can watch on the video at the bottom of this post), but I think the most effective way for us to help is to donate.

If you do want to help with this great project, and for only $2.00 who wouldn’t want to help, you can read more about it at Bloggers for Birth Kits.

This post was originally posted on my personal blog at Help Prospective Mothers in Papua New Guinea – Bill Hutchison

With the latest Earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand in February 2011 there were a lot of questions about the wellbeing of our YWAM Staff and Students in the area. Although YWAM does not have a full ministry centre in Christchurch YWAM Oxford runs a City Ministry House in the city, which was slightly damaged in the quake.

Youth With A Mission Oxford sent out an e-mail update about what’s happening there and the YWAM Centre’s response to the crisis.Here is the e-mail:

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks everyone for all your prayers and concerns.

As most of you have heard we are all doing fine here in Oxford. We definitely felt the earthquake, but no harm was done.

My main thoughts and prayers are for the city of Christchurch and just how we are to continue to respond as these events unfold. Last night we were able to send three vans in to Hagley Park where 100’s were displaced and without proper shelter in the rain. We brought 18 people back and were able to provide food, shelter and showers for the night. Today 9 of them have gone back into Christchurch in an attempt to resume their travel plans. The rest will stay here for another night and resume their plans tomorrow.

On another note, this weekend is our start date for our largest semester of the year. We have 55 students scheduled to come in this weekend to start our courses on Sunday. Domestic flights are running and international flights are scheduled to resume this afternoon, but will probably experience some delays.

Noah and Kate are doing fine at our City Ministry house in Christchurch, although the house sustained some damage.

Prayer Points

– How we as a community can best serve and respond as these events unfold

– That our network and communication lines will remain open

– Quick recovery of Christchurch city

– Comfort for those experiencing great loss, fear and trauma

– That our students would not be detoured from attending our courses

– That there would be minimal setbacks for the running of our schools (ie. possible delay of food supply and fuel as the immediate need is focused on the city.)

Thanks for your prayers!

Jeremy Slough

YWAM Oxford, Base Team Leader

You can connect to the YWAM Oxford Centre on their web-site, www.ywamoxford.org.

Image by Ann (Helen) Devereux