Join Oxfam Bath at Bath City Farm!

BBQ? Facepainting you say? and Bargains at a car boot sale? Yes to all 3 – and you can support Oxfam Bath at the same time! We’ll be joining Bath City Farm at their Mini May FunDay on Saturday, which is shaping up to be a great event. And we’re not just having 1 stall. Oh no – we’re having 2!

Stall Number 1 will be raising awareness of GROW, Oxfam’s Food Justice Campaign. This summer, Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, could be a major opportunity to address the injustices that mean 1 in 7 people go to bed hungry. Come and find out more about what Oxfam is calling on the UK government to do at the summit, and plant some free seeds which you can take home and watch GROW this summer!

Stall Number 2 will be asking people to show their support for a strong Arms Trade Treaty. Weapons can be traded more easily than bananas, coffee and dinosaur bones. That’s bonkers! We’ll have more information on how you can be part of changing this through the UN Arms Trade Treaty being agreed this summer.

So come and join us – the summer starts here, honest!!

The new Oxfam Bath Poster!!

Birth Rights: Meet the Midwife!

Cecilia Addah, 51, lives in the Upper East Region of Ghana. She’s the only midwife for 16,000 people, and covers three community clinics on her trusty motorbike. Across Ghana, nearly half of all women give birth without assistance from a qualified health worker like Cecilia. She works around the clock to support pregnant women, new mums and babies. Her training means she can help deliver babies safely, provide prenatal and postnatal
care, and give family planning advice. And her motorbike means she’s able to visit women at home if they can’t get to a clinic. “It’s a 24-hour service,” she says with a smile.

Most of the time, Cecilia is based at Wuru community clinic, built in 2010. She says it wouldn’t be here were it not for the government’s free health care initiative. “We should have more free services,” she says. “Mothers can come to access health care, so that they will not die.”

Despite being overworked, Cecilia loves her job. Her hope for Ghana is simple: “zero maternal mortality”. It’s a reminder that her patients are among the lucky ones.

And a reminder that the UK government needs to fulfil its commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid. This promise is a real chance for more women to receive life-saving health care during pregnancy. Join our call here!

Visit our pop up Birth Rights exhibition, now relocated to the window of Oxfam on Argyle St for stunning images of maternal health in Ghana. It’s free to see, and it’s open all hours!!

Birth Rights: Meet the Mum’s – Part II

Adumporka Abotiyure, 23, lives in a remote part of the Upper East Region of Ghana. When she went into labour with her third child, a traditional birth attendant took her 4km to the nearest health centre, so she could receive free health care from qualified professionals. “It was safer for me than at home,” she says.

Adumporka brought blankets, soap and a bottle of disinfectant, but spent the first few hours on the floor due to a lack of beds. When the time came to give birth, she was moved to a bed, and was tended to by a trained midwife and nurse. The birth went smoothly, and Adumporka gave birth to a beautiful boy.

A couple of hours later, mother and baby had to leave the health centre as there was no space to rest. Her husband took his new family home on the back of his motorbike, with his boy wrapped tightly in a shawl.

Adumporka’s story shows how free health care is protecting new mums and their babies – but it also shows that much more investment is needed. It’s not right to spend part of your labour on the floor, nor to be forced to leave hospital after only a few hours. And many women in remote areas are not even getting the basic health care they desperately need.

This is why we must keep investing in international aid. The UK government needs to fulfil its commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid. This promise is a real chance for more women to receive life-saving health care during pregnancy.Join our call here!

Photos of Adumporka’s story can be seen in our pop up exhibition, currently in the window of 15 Cheap St. Why not walk by on your way through Bath!

Birth Rights: Meet the Mum’s!

Selina Fletcher, 30, recently gave birth to her third child. Though she’s illiterate, Selina knows that maternal health care in Ghana is free. So, when her contractions started, she and her best friend Sarah made their way to Korle Bu Hospital in Accra, the capital city of Ghana.

But she came unprepared. In Ghana there are things you need to bring with you when you give birth, or otherwise you must pay for them. These include a bottle of disinfectant, a hair net and a blanket to cover the bed. To pay for these, Sarah left Selina at hospital, and returned to their village to ask her family for money.

With the money secured, and with a nurse and midwife by her side, Selina gave birth to a little girl. She’s called Savina, after her grandmother. After the birth, mum and daughter rested for 24 hours in a ‘lying-in’ ward, and the midwife gave Selina advice on caring for her baby. Then, with friends and family at their side, Selina and Savina returned home – healthy and happy, having received free, professional care from trained health workers.

Selina’s story is why we must keep investing in international aid. To improve the free healthcare on offer (should you really have to buy your own disinfectant?!). And to ensure women stop dying through lack of access to free healthcare. 75 women in Ghana die in needlessly in pregnancy and childbirth each week. That’s 75 too many. The UK government needs to fulfil its commitment to spend 0.7% of national
income on overseas aid. This promise is a real chance for more women to receive life-saving health care during pregnancy.Join our call here!

Photos of Selina’s story can be seen in our pop up exhibition, currently in the window of 15 Cheap St. Why not walk by on your way through Bath!

Birth Rights exhibition launches in Bath!

Cecilia Addah, midwife in Ghana

“It’s a joy to bring a child into the world” says Cecilia Addah, a midwife from Ghana. She’s right. Oxfam’s latest photo exhibition, Birth Rights, tells the birth story of 2 women in Ghana, Selina and Adumporka. The joy and beauty new life brings is self evident in their photos – which you can see for yourself, any time of day, at our pop-up exhibition in the windows of 15 Cheap St until April 20th!

Selina and Adumporka are lucky. They knew about and were able to access free healthcare. It is a sad fact that every week, around 75 women in Ghana die because of complications during pregnancy and childbirth. The vast majority of these deaths are completely preventable. Women die because there aren’t enough qualified health workers; health facilities are often far from women’s homes; pregnant women don’t know they can get free care. Factors which can be overcome by investment in the healthcare system.

But surely that’s Ghana’s problem? It’s true – the Ghanaian government needs to invest more in it’s healthcare services. But it’s not quite as simple as that. How can countries invest if they don’t have the resources & support to do so? Ghana has a GNI per capita of $1230. In the UK it is £38370. Over 30 times as much. The position they are starting from, trying to improve from, with their healthcare system, highlights the disparity that exists and the challenges they face.

The UK government needs to fulfil its commitment to spend 0.7% of national
income on overseas aid. This offers a real chance for more women to receive life-saving health care during pregnancy. The best kind of aid is long-term and predictable, and contributes directly to government budgets so that developing countries like Ghana can use it to pay for health workers, medicines and hospitals. At this critical moment, politicians of all parties need to know how important keeping the aid promise is. Click here to add your voice in letting the politicians know – Aid Matters!

Birth Rights Exhibition - 15 Cheap St, Bath

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be blogging about Selina and Adumporka – follow OxfamBath to hear more of their story – and remember to visit the exhibition on your way through central Bath!

Aid Matters Drinks & Discussion II

Why does Aid Matter?

Wednesday 11th March, 7.30pm, Crystal Palace Pub, Abbey Courtyard, Bath

Understanding what Aid can achieve enables us to better explain it’s value to the general public. This Wednesday we’ll be looking at Birth Rights, Oxfam’s latest campaign showing just how much difference Aid makes and how we can get involved to make a difference.

We hope to see you there. We’ll be blogging our thoughts & campaign actions afterwards!