The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) worked together with Laerdal Global Health, Jhpiego, Latter-day Saint Charities (LDSC), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and other international and national partners.
International partners’ contributions to the project
International partners contributed their resources, and expertise in the Helping Mothers Survive (HMS) and Helping Babies Survive (HBS) educational programmes.
Jhpiego Technical Specialists, LDSC Volunteers, AAP Technical Specialists, and ICM Midwife Advisors were responsible for the initial Master Training of Trainers.
Jhpiego, Laerdal Global Health, LDSC, and AAP collaborated to donate 3860 simulators and 3304 printed materials used for training and low-dose, high-frequency practice.
Jhpiego (Jhpiego, 2016), AAP (AAP, 2011), and others (Ersdal et al. 2017) provided the educational programmes, framework, and implementation guides which informed the project design.
Midwives’ Associations
To increase sustainability, Survive & Thrive and others (West et al, 2015) recommend that projects be led by in-country teams. ICM believes that Midwives’ Associations have an important, central role to support the advancement of the profession of midwifery and promote autonomous midwives as the most appropriate caregivers for childbearing women.
The 50,000 Happy Birthdays project consolidated a strong alliance between the Midwives’ Associations, ICM, and the international partners.
Rwanda Association of Midwives (RAM)
Project Manager
Mr. Fidele Nikurunziza until May 2019
Sr. Angelique Mugirente
President
Mrs. Josephine Murekezi
