Submitted by: Alicia Helion Belay, Fargo-Moorhead AM Rotary Club
Mark your calendars! We need you on September 17th as we celebrate the beginning of this initiative! Continue reading to find out how your club can participate to serve indigenous pregnant women across five states!
The Fargo-Moorhead AM Rotary club is thrilled to announce the approval of Global Grant 1980712, Group Prenatal Care Training for Indigenous Women. In a unique opportunity presented by having United States and Canadian clubs in our district, the Thunder Bay (Fort William) Rotary Club has joined us as an International Sponsor Rotary Club Partner to form an intra-district global grant. For this grant, $102,022 was raised from 39 entities. Eight countries contributed along with over 12 Rotary Districts! Once the initial amount was raised, a match from the Rotary Foundation World Fund was confirmed at $79,964, for a grand total of $181,986.
The project partners with five health centers/organizations serving indigenous women in five states (North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Montana), the March of Dimes, and the University of North Dakota.
The nearly $182,000 grant will provide training, financial support, technical and data assistance, and collaboration opportunities for the five partner organizations, allowing them to develop group prenatal care for indigenous pregnant women in their communities.
Group prenatal care is an evidence-based intervention that can reduce preterm birth—the number one cause of infant mortality—and improve many outcomes for the pregnant mothers, such as increasing breast-feeding initiation, reducing smoking, etc. Group prenatal care is consistent with native culture; for example, ‘talking circles’ allow everyone to contribute to a conversation with everyone’s voice being valued, which is similar to the format of group prenatal care.
Pictured above: Jodi Henry is showing a craft she hopes to make with the groups of prenatal women.
All Rotary clubs across the district—and beyond!!!---are invited to join us:
- Join a diaper drive to provide diapers to the hundreds of women's babies that will be served by this project.
- Come in person to Fargo, ND on September 17 for the kick-off event. Meet the partner sites and celebrate with traditional dance, meet-n-greet poster presentation, and a meal.
We will follow up with you in June to tell you more about the diaper drive and provide more details about September 17. For now, please ask your club members if they would like to join us in celebrating—in person or with diaper contributions!—and we will be in touch soon.
Contact us for more information at Alicia Belay, alicia.helion@gmail.com or 701-799-9414.