The Leyaata Ane Project is an expansion of GRID and NEA’s successful 2011-2014 Leyaata (“Rescue Us”) Project. In that earlier project, we saw newborn death rates in 80 communities plummet through simple, community-based activities. In the Leyaata Ane Project, we are extending those same core activities to include 160 communities … which means that twice as many mothers and babies will be helped. And based on what we learned in the first project, we’re doing a few extra things in this project so that results will be even stronger.

Who Benefits

60 health care providers

135 traditional birth attendants

160 community volunteers

10,000 men and 4,000 senior women

10,000 boys and 10,000 girls

24,000 women

24,000 newborns

What We’re Doing

Supporting Health Workers

The Challenge:
Health workers in Ghana face many frustrations. They work long hours in a difficult environment. They are often faced with medical situations that they are not prepared to respond to, either because they don’t have the updated skills or because they don’t have the simple equipment.

The Response:
We are training local health workers in skills that will allow them to provide excellent care around birth, and we’re giving them simple equipment needed to do so.

Results:

Provided 50 participating local health facilities with resuscitation kits, stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs and thermometers for safer childbirth.
153 health care workers were trained on safe birth and neonatal care practices during the life of the project.

Supported 52 healthcare providers ( of which 47 women and five men) in achieving certification in the Advances in Labour and Risk Management course developed by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.

Over 2,800 babies have been rescued.

Enabling Women to Choose Safe Childbirth

The Challenge:
Women in the project area have traditionally given birth at home without a trained attendant. Some don’t know about the risks of a home birth or the options for a safe facility delivery. For others, family and cultural dynamics mean that they may not choose where they can have their baby. And even when a woman chooses a safe childbirth at a clinic, she may not have the money to follow through on that decision.

The Response:
We have trained community health volunteers to visit pregnant women and their families twice before birth. They educate the whole family about the benefits of safe childbirth. Women are taught how to save for birth and receive a susu box (a type of local piggy bank) so they can put the training into practice.

Results:
Disbursed over 17,000 boxes and provide training to mothers and their families on the importance of planning and saving for obstetric and neonatal emergencies.

103 TBAs (all female) were trained on safe childbirth practices. In 2020, approximately 86% of all births in the project area took place with skilled assistance in a health facility.

At the start of the project in 2016, the maternal mortality rate in Northern Ghana where the Leyaata Ane Project was then implemented was 146/100,000 (Northern Region). By the end of the project, there had been zero maternal deaths in Area 1, which meant a maternal mortality rate of 0/100,000 and there had been only 3 deaths in area 2 which meant a maternal mortality rate of 16/100,000.

Several chiefs took the importance of facility-based births very seriously, strongly advocating for it within their communities and this will greatly impact the sustainability of the Leyaata Ane Project.

Caring for Newborns

The Challenge:
In the Project area, newborn death rates were very high (about 45 out of 1000 newborns died before they were one month old). The first week of life is the time of greatest risk.

The Response:
We’ve trained community health volunteers to visit newborns three times in the first week of life. The volunteer weighs the baby and takes his or her temperature, monitoring for signs of illness. If a baby is in distress in any way, the volunteer refers the baby and parents to the nearest health facility.

Results:
In 2016, newborn mortality rates fell to about 7/1000. Put another way, about 125 babies born in 2016 are alive today because of these activities.

In 2019, the neonatal mortality rate fell to 5.4/1000.

By the end of the project, the neonatal mortality rate in Area 1 decreased from 15/ 1000 to 3.2/ 1000. The neonatal mortality rate in Area 2 decreased from 45/1000 to 3.8/ 1000.

Helping Adolescents Protect their Health

The Challenge:
In the project area, adolescents face serious pressure to become sexually active early in life. Health workers are alarmed at the increase in teenage pregnancies and unsafe abortions to terminate those pregnancies.

The Response:
Project staff are visiting schools to listen to adolescents about the pressures that they face and to provide them with information about safeguarding their health.

Results:
In 2019, 30 schools were involved in setting up adolescent clubs, 60 teachers received training in providing effective adolescent-friendly services to youth and over two thousand boys and girls registered and completed the training.

Facilitated 861 adolescents ( of which 456 girls and 395 boys) in visiting an “adolescent reproductive health corner” in one of 16 health facilities, where they received information and guidance from a skilled health worker. 

9,371 adolescents (4,951 boys, 4,420 girls) received training in family planning and reproductive health.

2,276 adolescents were trained in safe sexual and reproductive health practices in adolescent health clubs.

248 chiefs took part in training on gender-sensitive training in reproductive health.

Leyaata Ane Stories