Ebrima Drammeh, a member of Gambian Women’s Live Matter has challenged the Ministry of Health to launch investigation into maternity deaths registered in various health facilities across the country.
Drammeh made this disclosure to The Voice Newspaper in an exclusive interview, where he revealed that Gambian Women’s Live Matter has registered one hundred and thirty two (132) maternal deaths from August 2020 to August 2021.
“We want to call on the Ministry of Health to launch investigations into the maternity deaths and tell Gambian people what is going on. Every single day our young women are dying at the health facilities and it would be fair for the Ministry of Health to come forth and tell Gambian people what is responsible for all these deaths,” Ebrima Drammeh challenged Ministry of Health.
According to him, the investigation will helped the Ministry of Health to know the root causes of the upsurge in the death of young people while giving birth, adding that the Gambia been a small country registering high deaths relative to maternity should be a great concern for every Gambian especially the Ministry of Health.
Drammeh revealed that during the past one year Gambian Women’s Lives Matters has registered 132 deaths associated with maternity within the Greater Banjul and West Coast Regions and said it is a scary number of which 93babies also died during the same period in the same regions.
The Gambian Women’s Live Matter official also called on health workers to be vigilant and patient as they handle delicate issues of women in labour, adding that patients are difficult to handle due to the level of their sickness and the pains they endured during labour.
Delving into matters associated with the association, he disclosed to this medium that the association is into fundraising activities within the country and outside in a bid to support vulnerable families.
Plans, he assured, are afoot to expand their operations across the length and breadth of the country in their effort to scaling down the syndrome of maternal and child deaths.
“Currently we are entirely bankrolling all our activities alone thanks to Gambians both home and abroad. We want to call on the government and other agency to support our cause as the initiative is solely meant to complement their efforts in making health services delivery much better,” Drammeh noted.
More so, the organisation plans to open offices and buying ambulance that will help in the delivery of the health needs of patients, as the organization is also having plans to expand beyond Greater Banjul and West Coast.
Gambian Women’s Live Matter is a local NGO that was created in 2020 and vows to contribute its quota in reducing the loss of lives through maternity as well as supporting orphans.