In 2010, I made a short film in Sierra Leone on maternal health which is now online on LinkTV.
http://www.linktv.org/viewchangefilmcontest/films/view/851
Sierra Leone has among the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. In 2009, it is estimated that one in eight women died during pregnancy. To get some perspective, one in 47,600 women die in pregnancy in Ireland. The reasons are complex but in part it is due to an insufficient health care system. In the capital of Freetown, one doctor has to serve more than 100,000 people. Getting drugs and equipment is expensive and the country is in desperate need of more trained doctors. Yet there may be hope since the government announced it will give free health care to pregnant women and children from April 27th, 2010 but they need help from the international community to make it sustainable.
I worked together with fellow student Lauren Malkani for just a few short but intense days in Freetown to create this short multimedia story while getting my Masters at the University of Miami in 2010. I also worked as Senior Producer with the Knight Center for International Media along with Rich Beckman, Tom Kennedy, and a great team of students to produce this website on the UN Millennium Goals. http://mdg.glocalstories.org/
