On Thursday, March 27, The White Ribbon Alliance For Safe Motherhood of Tanzania celebrated its annual event in Dar es Salaam. Unfortunately, there was very little press coverage. I was able to locate Jiang Alipo's report titled "Maternal mortality rates remain high" in the Daily News.I soldiered on however because I wanted to know more about a family traveling from the UK staying at the same lodging facility, Swiss Garden Hotel. Julia (grand mother), Alison (daughter) and Harriet (grand daughter) were coming back to their roots. Their story can be found in the BBC story, Celebrating 50 by raising awareness of Africa's highest killer. It turns out that the younger Harriet is "part of a project to teach Tanzanian midwives how to film and edit their own stories in the hope of raising awareness of the biggest killer in Africa" (six million babies a year are stillborn or die in the first week of life).
The project, Birth Aid is supported by Engine Room, a community-based media center in Somerset, England. The outcome is a participatory video titled "Play Your Part", which earned a Commendation from One World Media Awards 2007 "for an outstanding and unique contribution to the communication of sustainable development and human rights".
Other sources: TANZANIA: Maternal deaths on the rise
