Magdalene Awor is one of the midwives who works in the Lui Hospital, South Sudan. She dedicates the International Day of Midwife with a letter to her colleagues all over the world to celebrate their special job.

 Dear Colleagues,

Greetings from South Sudan!

The celebration of this Day all over the world reminds us the importance of our role, above all in a Country that has one of the highest maternal mortality and morbidity worldwide.

Through the Midwifery Training program we are running, we want to qualify competent young males and females as part of the team with the objective to curb down the maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. There are many things that we desire to accomplish but the resources and interests are limited.

We celebrate this day keeping on our daily work: raising awareness of young schoolchildren on dangers of adolescent pregnancy, making home visits, participating in immunization of pregnant mothers and newborn babies. We want a Country of healthy babies and healthy mothers throughout her pregnancy, labour and puerperium.

We face day by day challenges like the lack of human resources but this should never slow us down. Working with students, we have learnt to improvise in order to achieve the goal.

My dear colleagues, I invite all of us not to sit and wait. There are mothers and babies who need us, who need to be cared for, who need a chance to live. Come on, we join hands for pooled efforts!

Enjoy this day and our special job, it is the “Mother and Newborn, The Heart of Midwifery”