How can you help to reduce transmission of coronavirus by regularly washing your hands if you live in a rural village in Africa with no access to running water (let alone being able to afford hand sanitiser)? How do you learn about social distancing and other public health messages if you have no electricity and no television?

We are launching this appeal at a time of great difficulty for millions of people in this country and across the world.

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and internationally we are striving to slow down its spread. In Africa the virus has spread to dozens of countries within a few weeks and governments and health authorities are working to limit the rate of infection and reduce the impact of the virus.

Basic preventative measures by individuals and communities are the most powerful tool to prevent the spread of COVID-191

At Maternity Worldwide we are launching an appeal to raise £10,000 so that we can support the communities where we work to continue to save lives in childbirth during this time and to help them to be more resilient to coronavirus by promoting the WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) principles by:

1. Providing soap and sanitation products to households in villages in Uganda and Malawi.

2. Providing safe health promotion on hygiene, hand washing and social distancing from specially trained staff following government guidelines and wearing PPE.

3. Providing sanitation equipment for clinics and health promotion key messages for health staff.

Please support us to carry out this vital work, you can help save lives. Thank you!