Empowering communities; saving lives

Women and Children First is a small charity with a big goal: to end the tragedy of women and babies dying around the world due to preventable problems in pregnancy and childbirth. Every 2 minutes a woman dies in pregnancy, childbirth or shortly after: we want to change that.

We have pioneered a community group health approach which has, over the last 20 years, saved thousands of lives around the world.

We set up health groups with our in-country partners, which are led by the communities themselves. The groups follow a highly-effective methodology through which communities come together to identify barriers to good health and work collaboratively to implement solutions.

The main focus of our work is improving maternal and newborn health. Community health groups can halve maternal mortality and reduce newborn mortality by a third.

The groups give women and communities control over their own health. They are cost-effective, and sustainable. Our approach is approved by the World Health Organisation. We are currently working in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda – and also the UK. We passionately believe in the power of people coming together, empowered to effect change.