End-of-Year-Letter.

12.12.2017

Prishtina, 12 December, 2017

Dear friend,

As a loyal supporter of Action for Mothers and Children, you may not realize how much your support really means to the premature babies, traumatized mothers, ill children, and all other families in pain.

One of the babies we helped this year is Adora. Adora is born in February of this year and weighted only 870 grams at birth. The survival of infants is determined by their gestational age and weight. Babies born under 1000 grams have lower chances of survival than babies born on term. Adora was immediately admitted at the Neonatology Intensive Care Unit and stayed in the incubator for weeks. While in the incubator, Adora used Surfactant medication; received treatment via oxygen system; her heart and breathing rates were constantly monitored via cardiopulmonary monitors and her blood samples were taken right at the incubator using the CRP/CBC equipment – all made possible by you. Adora’s mom was offered counseling on breastfeeding and post-partum depression at our Women’s Health Resource Center – made possible by friends and supporters like you. Adora’s mom was also counseled to do free Pap-smear tests that prevent her cervix to develop cancer – made possible through our donors and friends. As Adora is growing every day, her mom is donating her unused clothes to our Teshavesha store, where they are sold and recycled while generating additional funding to support children in need.

Thanks to your support, we have established this effective cycle of interventions in maternal and child health so that every program alleviates our everyday fight to lower maternal and child mortality rates in the country. But as long as mothers and children die or suffer from conditions that are preventable and treatable, there’s more work to do.

Today we are reaching out to let you know about our plans in 2018 and remind you about our end-of-year gift to AMC. You can make a meaningful impact for our country’s most disadvantaged groups – mothers and children.

With your donation today, in 2018 we will:

–Continue the delivery of Survanta medication to cover the national need for premature babies who need surfactant;

-Deliver CRP/CBC equipment to Peja hospital which is essential in conducting blood analysis right at baby’s incubator instead of outside the clinic.

-Deliver other medical supplies and equipment for maternity wards around Kosovo;

–Expand the transportation of babies from regional hospitals to Prishtina. Up to date, parents deliver babies for advanced treatment using their private cars, due to lack of a neonatal referral system and makes it difficult for many babies to survive;

–Continue providing and expanding free services of Women’s Health Resource Center so that more women have access to evidence-based information as well as extend the digital services of these centers which are proving to help mother deliver healthier babies;

-Further increase the reach of services to families for positive parenting so that our future leaders are raised with positive attitude and understanding;

–Expand our cervical cancer screening program in a primary care center outside Prishtina and increase the number of women benefiting from free Pap-tests, while advocating on setting up the national cervical cancer screening program in Kosovo;

–Advocate for reproductive health services and rights and awareness through Coalition K10, a unified group of 10 stakeholders of the common goal;

–Expand our social enterprise, Teshavesha, so that we promote green enterprises by recycling second hand clothing, employ marginalized women, and generate more funding to support children of Kosovo;

-Bring you creative annual fundraising activities, such as, Cycle Kosovo for Children, Let’s Dance, Teshavesha, and Meet Us Halfway, Europe Metropol Benefit, and more where we can all together save the lives of mothers and children in Kosovo and continue to do good.

We thank you humbly for your support this year and look forward to continued partnerships in the years ahead.
Best wishes for this holiday season!