Sheikh Abdoullah Jah Foundation, in collaboration with Royal Victoria Teaching (RVTH), recently commenced a two-week training course for 50 midwives on the use of the partograph, an essential tool for monitoring the labour and delivery process of pregnant women.

Delivering his keynote address at the occasion, the Permanent Secretary, Department of State for Health and Social Welfare, Sulayman Samba, said, “investment in capacity development in the use of the partograph tends to be more strategic. This is because its design attempts to scale up the services of traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and link them the formal health system to generate knowledge and skills required to monitor the entire human procreation cycle. This facilitates timely decisions to address complicated delivery conditions and the causal factors of maternal mortality.”

Mr Samba thanked SAJCF for financing the training, noting that over the years the foundation has made an impact by training lot of health and traditional birth attendants.

Speaking earlier, on SAJCF’s sponsorship, Professor Dr Omar Jah, President of the foundation, stated that since the inception of the foundation in 2004 they have been conducting mobile medical clinic trips and treating patients in rural communities free of charge as well as training medical personnel.

He added that the training of midwives on the use of partograph and other safe delivery support systems is a continuation of their commitment to support the efforts of Department of State for Health in its drive to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on the reduction of maternal, new born and infant mortality in The Gambia.

For his part, the Chairman of the Hospital management Board, Dr Ebrima Malick Samba, said they want to achieve vision 2010 and also to meet the MDG targets.

Mr Muhammed Jah, making a PowerPoint presentation on the operations of the foundation, said the objectives of SAJCF are to offer free medical treatment to rural communities and also to offer free medical training.

He revealed that since its inception the foundation has treated 11,000 patients.

Others speakers at the ceremony included the Chief Medical Director of the RVTH.