Edith Uyovbukerhi- Hope for Little Big Souls
Edith Uyovbukerhi found a way to turn a moment of great despair 13 years ago into an opportunity to bring hope and goodness to the world.
Uyovbukerhi [yo:bu:kεri] was an expectant mother on holiday in 2003’s Ghana when she suddenly had to deliver her third child. Tejie, who was born premature (weeks before the usual nine months gestation) lived only three weeks before passing away. Uyovbukerhi describes the death as “truly avoidable, if there had been extra resources”. The hospital she’d chosen didn’t have enough nursing staff in its maternity ward to ensure proper care for all the babies.
As her answer to doing something in her child’s name to bring hope and life to others, Uyovbukerhi and her lawyer sister Chief Mrs. Yvonne-frances Igweh founded LittleBigSouls, a charity recognised by the World Health Organisation (“WHO”) that works to improve outcomes for premature babies in five African countries: Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Guinea and Zimbabwe.
Prematurity is the leading cause of death in children under age five with about 1 million babies - more than one in every ten - dying every year.
The WHO suggests that half of premature deaths in low income settings are due to a lack of mostly basic care such as provision of warmth, breastfeeding support, care for infections, and the more advanced care in handling breathing difficulties. Nearly all premature babies survive in developed health systems though.
When Uyovbukerhi says, her child died a needless death, she is it seems, just confirming what the data shows. The frightening situation is that, two in every three of such births occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has been among the regions least capable of providing such basic care.
Fighting off despair with hope and awareness
“For most people, the first time they see a premature baby is the day they have one. It can be traumatising for many, and some parents walk away from their babies, confronted by the weight of cultural misconceptions and fear.” Premature babies are considered by some people to represent bad luck, for instance.
LittleBigSouls has for many years organised public awareness programs with ‘preemie’ ambassadors – older children and grown ups who were born prematurely - to show parents that like all other babies, preemies are gifts from God who grow to become healthy and successful people.
LittleBigSouls, together with three other charities created the World Prematurity Day, marked on November 17, every year, to highlight this grave issue and to drive awareness on a global stage.
Parents also receive care packs with essentials, like preemie nappies (which are much smaller than regular baby nappies) and baby hats, since preemies need to have their heads covered. Sometimes, the charity intervenes financially to help parents settle medical bills.
Support for medical systems
LittleBigSouls also have an equipment donation programme through which they donate things like incubators and various critical care equipment to neonatal intensive care units.
In partnership with experts in neonatal medicine around the world, the charity organises training programmes for local medics in these units. This year alone, neonatal care medics at La General, Ridge Regional, and Tema General Hospitals have received training organised by the charity.
Funding & Community
Through Uyovbukerhi’s efforts, the Ghana branch organises a number of events throughout the year to build community, grow awareness and raise funding in support of its work.
Only three weeks ago, LittleBigSouls’ Art for Preemies, an art exhibition and auction, was held at the Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel Accra, to raise awareness and funding to support the work. The invitation-only event featured work by Kwabena Fodjour, with the award winning musician Kidi and live band Xtherapy in attendance.
The Walk for Preemies, in its ninth year this year will according to Uyovbukerhi have a float along Oxford Street – Osu to mark this year’s event.
Cause for Praise, an interfaith praise and worship event will have its second edition later this year as Uyovbukerhi describes the début last year as phenomenal.
The flaghsip fundraising event of the charity is the Annual Angel Ball, which Uyovbukerhi says, “is about bringing together big wigs and corporates and asking them to help us”.
In spite of all of the energy that the charity requires, Uyovbukerhi works a regular day job as CEO of GN Foods Limited in Tema, which produces tomato paste for local and export markets.
Her career spans some 25 years in various positions in global brands PwC, Cadbury, Nestle, Tesco and Diageo, where she headed the Business performance and Strategy unit in Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited, the Ghana subsidiary.
She was recently named Vlisco 2018 Women’s Ambassador in recognition of her leadership and inspiring work she has done for over a decade bringing hope to parents and saving the lives of babies.
Uyovbukerhi’s work in charity is every bit as entrepreneurial as any other, only the stakes are higher. She has to deal with the challenges of funding, motivating people, finding the most efficient ways of using what funds she receives, and delivering hope and awareness to parents and medics.
The value she creates from her enterprise is a better chance at life for these tough premature babies with big souls who’s every breath is a struggle because their lungs at birth are often not yet well formed.
Edith Uyovbukerhi finds hope for LittleBigSouls. Consider what failure in this endeavour could mean.