For more than 20 years, the Innovative Development Education Academy (IDEA) in Pokhara, Nepal had been running an 18-month midwifery education/training course for girls and women from remote areas of Nepal which helped save lives of mothers and children in the remote areas of Nepal. In 2019-2021 TRAS was able to pay for 10 students to receive their Midwifery Certificate.
Read more about the IDEA Midwifery Project here.
This “old” program was cancelled by the Nepalese Ministry of Health at all institutes without their own 100-bed hospital, so IDEA was compelled to seek alternative ways to offer training. In coordination with the Ministry of Health, IDEA was able to implement an intensive 3-month Skilled Birth Attendant (SBA) course. The SBA course is offered to medical personnel (2 month residential and 1 month internship training) so they can augment the midwifes’ work by intervening where difficult deliveries mean mother and baby are at risk.
IDEA will be selecting 15 students every three months for this advanced SBA training with the requirement that after graduation they will be returning to their rural communities to help provide safe delivery for mothers and babies. The results of this program have been very successful and the Ministry of health is satisfied.
From 2022 to 2026 TRAS has agreed to support 15 students and currently needs $17,000 CAD each year ($1,134 CAD for each student). A generous donor has already provided some funding for this project, and we are hoping that others will match his donation.