13 years of saving lives: How Amie Jarju and Join Hands 2 Save a Baby transformed maternity care in The Gambia
For thirteen years, one name has become synonymous with hope in the labour wards of The Gambia: Amie Jarju known as Mother Theresa and her foundation, Join Hands 2 Save A Baby.
What started as a simple act of compassion giving a new mother something to hold her baby with has grown into one of the most impactful maternal health movements in the country, touching thousands of mothers, babies, nurses and doctors across the country.
As the foundation marks its 13th anniversary, its journey tells a powerful story of frontline philanthropy.
Since 2013, Amie Jarju has distributed over 18,000 baby starter packs to new mothers across the country, worth over D698,000.
Each pack contains baby outfits, nappies, a blanket, tea and sugar, maternity pads, and where approved by medical teams, paracetamol to ease after-birth pain. For many rural women who arrive at clinics with nothing, it is dignity in a bag.
But Amie did not stop at distribution. She embarked on nationwide maternity tours, spending days and nights inside labour wards with women in labour, midwives and doctors. The tours were not ceremonial. She supported midwives to deliver babies, connected with mothers in pain, and identified first-hand the broken toilets, torn bedsheets, and lack of equipment that health workers face daily.
“I spend time with women, nurses and doctors in the labour wards. The tour helps us to connect, identify and understand the challenges these professionals face,” Amie once explains. “Where possible, we offer help to improve the quality of care or facilities.”
That understanding turned into action.
Join Hands 2 Save A Baby has rolled out a chain of life-changing projects that have literally rebuilt maternity care:
– Rehabilitation of Mandinary Labour Ward — D300,000
– Renovation of a ward at Bakoteh SOS Children’s Village in 2019 — D250,000
– Renovation of Banjulinding Labour Ward — over D200,000, including removal of defective toilets in maternity, outpatient and medical wards, replacement with new flush toilets, sinks, hand wash basins, plus donation of pillows, pillow cases and bed sheets in April 2020.
The foundation also donated 8 hospital beds to Tendaba Clinic — D98,000, and constructed a brand-new Maternity Theatre in Brikama — D4 million (£46,000). The project took 21 months, from May 2018 to February 2020, and now serves thousands of women in West Coast.
The foundation also established a complete Neonatal/Intensive Care Unit at Bwiam General Hospital and donated over D5 million in equipment and renovation in June 2020, plus donation of hospital monitors to Brikama and Bwiam worth £96,000.
It also donated 4 neonatal incubators to Brikama District Hospital worth millions of dalasis.
Recognising that many mothers die from bleeding after birth, the foundation established the National Maternal Blood Bank Project, donated 5 maternal blood bank refrigerators to 5 different hospitals at a cost of D625,000, and conducted eight blood withdrawal and sensitisation campaigns costing over D500,000.
It has also donated television sets with satellite dishes to hospitals, to ease the long waiting hours for patients.
Amie’s humanitarian vision extends beyond health. Through fundraising with the King of Kora, Jaliba Kuyateh, the foundation raised over D2 million for women and community projects. Its TRU (Roots Unite and Culture) Project, costing over D900,000, promotes equality, unity, diversity and inclusion despite cultural and political differences. And its Frontline Youth Project, launched at Botrop Technical Senior Secondary School, is grooming the next generation of community leaders.
Today, Join Hands 2 Save A Baby is not slowing down. Three major projects are ongoing: the construction of Ndemban Modern Maternal Clinic, construction of Kandongku Maternal Clinic, and expansion of the Niamina Katamina Labour Ward.
At a time when maternal mortality remains a national concern, Amie Jarju’s model of listening to midwives, investing directly in wards, and showing up where mothers are most vulnerable stands out.
