Shanti Uganda - the backstory

Every minute, another woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth. Every minute, the loss of a mother shatters a family and threatens the well-being of surviving children. For every woman who dies, 20 or more experience serious complications. These range from chronic infections to disabling injuries such as obstetric fistula. Maternal death and disability rates mirror the huge discrepancies that exist between the haves and the have-nots both within and between countries.

Of the more than 500,000 women who die during pregnancy or childbirth, 90 per cent occur in Africa and Asia. The majority of women are dying from severe bleeding, infections, eclampsia, obstructed labour and the consequences of unsafe abortions--all preventable causes for which we have highly effective interventions. Shanti Uganda is doing exactly what needs to be done in thousands of communities around the globe.

We are so blessed in this country that we generally do not have to worry about dying in childbirth, but for a majority of the worlds women, this is a reality.


Their Story
The Shanti Uganda Society began as a vision to bring the healing power of yoga to communities experiencing trauma in Uganda. Kim Ridgewell and Natalie Angell began to discuss ways to make this vision a reality and with the support of friends and family, created ‘Shanti Uganda’. In 2007, Natalie left for Uganda and worked at a local school, began a yoga program for children and supported birthing women at a health clinic. Here, she met Lubwama Julius, who was a teacher at the school. Over the next year they began to support additional schools in the region and an income generating group for women with HIV/AIDS. In 2008, The Shanti Uganda Society incorporated as a non-profit organization.


Eco Birthing Center Project
Birth Assistance and Education: The birthing culture in Uganda has been deeply impacted by medicalization. Many of the traditional birth practices have been lost and replaced with a birth process that does not take into account the wisdom of traditional midwives and healing. Our work with birthing communities supports natural, conscious birth and a return to the traditional methods that value a normal, sacred birth. Our birth programs support women throughout their pregnancy, birth and postnatal period as well as educate midwives in the local communities.

Birth Center: A place where birthing women come for prenatal support and care, prenatal yoga, birth assistance, postnatal support and breastfeeding education. Here, we will also provide training for local midwives and those in the birthing community.

Organic Farm: The farm and gardens will provide food and income to support the children at the Shanti Uganda Center – a place where community members will learn about sustainable agriculture and medicinal plants and develop practical income generating skills.


The Birth Center in Kasana
There currently exists a divide between the registered midwives and the traditional birth attendants who have for years supported the birthing women in their communities. As a result of colonialism, the prevailing midwifery education is based on the old British book system. This has largely eradicated traditional birthing practices and resulted in high intervention rates. In a country where sanitation and medical facilities are lacking, high cesarean section rates, routine episiotomy and other interventions lead to infection and death. In addition to supporting birthing women, the birth centre will act as a place of employment for local midwives and provide training and workshops for the traditional birth attendants in the region. We will focus on preventative care with an emphasis on nutrition, local herbs and education. Birthing women will be empowered by midwives in a gentle and normal home-like setting. This will provide a space for babies to enter the world without trauma.

The meeting room will provide a space for the women in our income-generating group to gather and work. We have recently begun another jewelry and textiles group comprised of 30 women from the 350 HIV positive members supported by the clinic in Kasana. The meeting room will give them a space to work as well as provide a place for us to store the sewing machines. Over the past two years, we have sent thousands of dollars to the women in our existing group through jewelry sales in Canada. However, the slum where they were living in Kampala has recently been bought by a developer, which has forced them to scatter all over the city. It has shown us just how important it is to create a safe and sustainable physical space for women to meet and work.

People Involved
The Shanti Uganda Society is run by a Board of Directors in Vancouver BC, Natalie Angell, executive director, and Lubwama Julius, the local project coordinator in Uganda. The new birth centre will be run entirely by The Shanti Uganda Society with the support of Bishop Asili Clinic. It will be staffed by local midwives and will be within adequate distance to Bishop Asili should complications arise and transfer becomes necessary.

**information taken directly from OTM, Shanti Uganda and UNFPA websites**