Letter from the CEO

It has been said many times, but it bears repeating that 2020 was a challenging year for us all. From the staggering number of lives lost to the virus to the loneliness and  isolation so many have felt while in quarantine, every single person has experienced some sort of loss in the past year. Yet, as is often seen in times of adversity, OHW has grown stronger and more resilient than ever. Our team has worked diligently and made tremendous strides to continue providing essential maternal and newborn care in the rural Nepali communities that we serve. Despite the many challenges our staff faced in Nepal, thanks to their constant efforts and your donations, we were able to achieve incredible results.  

In March 2020, the Government of Nepal closed its borders and imposed a full lockdown across the nation to protect its citizens from the pandemic. In response, our programs were ground to a complete stop as funds were diverted towards the national COVID-19 response, leaving programs like  Maternal & Newborn Health (MNH) services deprived of attention and assistance. Our team had to act quickly to ensure that pregnant women and their infants in program districts continued to receive critical MNH care. In the following months, OHW distributed Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to 1,024 health facilities across our program districts and provided training to prepare our birthing centers to respond to the increased complications created by the pandemic. OHW was also able to procure and distribute Misoprostol, a life-saving drug that can induce labor and reduce blood loss, to all of our active program districts - another area severely impacted by the COVID-19 lockdown. As a result, not one of our districts experienced an increase in maternal deaths due to the lack of Misoprostol.  In addition, other existing programs were redesigned and tailored to best fit the COVID-19 context. Though these new programs were born out of necessity, they will continue to grow and save lives, ultimately playing a large role in the legacy we seek to leave behind.

While we do not know what the world may look like as we move into 2021, we hold firm to the hope that things will get better. Not because they have to, but because the people we work with and those who support us seek to make the world a better place. I want to thank you for all of your support, whether you are as new as I am or have been a supporter since the beginning. I am excited to be part of such an incredible team and look forward with great hope to the future. OHW has a remarkable history of serving vulnerable mothers and children, and I will do all that I can to strengthen that legacy as we move forward together.

Sincerely,

David Murphy, CEO of One Heart Worldwide