News & Events

Third year BSc (Hons) Midwifery students Amanda Gill (Portsmouth) and Emma Barton (Bournemouth) have received funding from both the Iolanthe Midwifery Trust and the Global Horizons Fund to visit Kenya as part of their elective placements.

The Iolanthe Midwifery Trust is a charity which awards funding to pre-registration students for their electives to enhance their coursework.

The application process involved writing a funding application detailing their reasons for choosing Kenya, their plans while there and what they hope to achieve not only for themselves, but also for their education and the profession.

As well as Iolanthe, Amanda and Emma also applied to Global Horizons Fund, a scheme run by BU.

They each received £1,000 from each fund to cover travel, accommodation, subsistence and associated costs of the visit. They will be presented their awards at the annual Iolanthe Midwifery Trust award ceremony in Edinburgh in September.

Their three week visit will take place in July 2014, where they will be joining a small team from the UK to visit maternity services in central Kenya – Nanyuki District Hospital and the surrounding rural communities and health facilities of Lewa.

The initial project was established by three former BU students, aiming to provide training and sharing of skills and knowledge to midwives in Kenya to improve the lives of mothers and babies.

The project supports the development and provision of a range of education resources for use in the hospital and community clinic settings. Amanda and Emma were chosen to accompany these midwives and a paediatrician following interviews.

The elective experience will include observational placement of midwifery and obstetric services, visits to rural health facilities and participation in training and skills sharing sessions.

Amanda and Emma will have the opportunity to witness pregnancy and child-birth from different cultural perspectives, in both a district hospital and rural community settings.

Amanda and Emma are also raising money for training equipment and resources for the Kenya project.

Directly after the elective, Amanda will be partaking in a trip that includes climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa and, amongst other activities, Emma will be completing the Bournemouth half-marathon in October.

Should anyone wish to contribute to their fundraising efforts, they can do so on their JustGiving page.