The Story of Women & Children First

Too often, women, children and young people face problems that kill them, harm them or hold them back. We believed local communities have the answers, but too often they are told what to do, treated as the problem, or ignored.

Not by us.

A girl holding school books

Our vision:

Driven by a vision of a world where all women, children, and young people thrive. We collaborated with communities and organisations, fostering adaptability and kindness to unlock every individual’s brilliance.

Women's community health group meeting in action

Our values:

At the core of our work was female empowerment. Women and Children First championed training inspiring women, involving them in problem solving and decision making. The charity aspired to reinforce their autonomy within communities.

Our work strived to be inclusive, collaborative and modern. We treated partners with respect and dignity. We created environments where women and children can survive and thrive, to feel safe and secure.

mother smiling and holding baby

Our mission:

We believed that local communities, fuelled by collaborative spirit and driven by compassion, hold the key to overcoming global health challenges.

Our mission was to equip them with tools so that communities themselves can access the knowledge and resources they need to come up with their own solutions to survive and thrive.

REAL LIFE STORIES

Martha’s story

“They act like a support group for me. Once I missed my (HIV) treatment. The group encouraged me to start again. My babies were given treatment too, meaning I could breastfeed them.”

Our strategy

Our focus was on improving the lives of more women and children in rural and remote areas.

The ‘Position, Prepare, Power-Up’ approach was to create more groups, and collaborate with governments, to help communities thrive, empowering them and unlocking their potential.

Position:

Evidence shows that our community health groups can halve maternal mortality and cut newborn mortality by a third.

We were aiming to scale this methodology nationwide, saving thousands of lives yearly through advocacy, government partnerships, and community health consultant training.

Prepare:

Expanding beyond maternal and newborn health, we adapted our community health group approach to tackle other issues, like sexual and reproductive health, child nutrition, and supporting people living with disabilities.

We tested complementary innovations alongside this, such as personalised antenatal calendars, to boost use of health services.

Power up

We strived to ensure we had the people, skills, systems and support in place to enable us to support more women and children to better health worldwide.

Accounts and Reviews