2021 was a special year for us as it saw the reopening of all our projects and the rebuilding of our services to pre-pandemic levels – something we were not sure would happen during the worst times of 2020.
Whilst the global pandemic continued to have some impact, I am delighted our services across Sierra Leone, Malawi and Madagascar helped more than 32,000 women and children in 2021 – almost 10,000 more than 2020.
Such an achievement is testament to the faith, determination and hard work of our African and UK teams to ensure our projects continued to help the most vulnerable women and girls in society.
In Sierra Leone, in addition to providing the essential maternity and children’s services that had continued throughout the pandemic, we were able to run our fistula services for the full year, as well as restart our Dream Girls program and open a new Skills Training Centre, both of which provide support and opportunities to vulnerable teenage mothers.
In Malawi and Madagascar, we reopened our clinics in April and May respectively and welcomed back our staff and more than 500 fistula patients who had not been able to access care while we were closed. The trust of these women and girls to come to our clinics after such uncertainty brought great joy to our teams who reveled in caring for our patients again.
Once again, the generosity of our loyal supporters was humbling and inspiring. Our work is not possible without the support of partner organizations and individuals and I am personally very grateful that so many of you trust us with your funds. We are committed to spending them wisely and we thank you for your ongoing support.
As we look forward to 2022, we welcome new partners and old friends to continue to support the women and girls of Africa who are inspirational to us all.
Dame Ann Gloag
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
