Birthing Kit Assembly an Enjoyable Event for Everyone Involved

On January 12, 2008, 30 women from the Zonta Club of Pittburgh and guests assembled over 1000 birthing kits for a hospital in the Kisumu district of western Kenya.

Dr. Lee Fogarty and Dr. Beth Steifel Co-Chaired the Birthing Kit Project for the Zonta Club of Pittsburgh. While assembling over 1000 kits for a hospital in the Kisumu district of western Kenya, Zontians and guests combined teamwork, fellowship and comraderie for an enjoyable and successful project.

Below are some photographs from the morning's activities.

Local birthing kits to aid Kenyan women

Local birthing kits to aid Kenyan women
Sunday, January 13, 2008

By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Tribal strife has seized much of Kenya in recent weeks, but the danger in giving birth there is perennial.

In response, the Zonta Club of Pittsburgh has rallied in support of a hospital in the Kisumu district of western Kenya. Yesterday, 25 members of the club gathered in Lee Fogarty's office Downtown to assemble 1,000 packages of supplies for sanitary deliveries.

Ms. Fogarty is heading up the local Birthing Kits for Kenya project after attending a Zonta international conference in Australia and hearing about a sister club's similar endeavor.

"We got a contact to this hospital in Kenya, and they thought this was a gift from God because they have been having such a hard time providing sterile conditions for their births," said Ms. Fogarty, a psychologist. "We've been looking for projects that will make a direct difference."

The 89-year-old international club was founded in Buffalo and named for the Lakhota Sioux word "zhonta," meaning honest and trustworthy. It has spread to 70 countries and works to improve the health, education and social status of women and girls.

The local club gives college scholarships, and its members are mentors to teenage girls. It also has participated in a tetanus-safety project in Third World countries, said Ms. Fogarty.

The birthing kits each contain a plastic sheet, piece of soap, pair of gloves, three gauze squares, three cord ties and a sterile scalpel blade. Everything is arranged to fit inside a quart-sized plastic bag.

To keep costs of materials and shipping as low as possible, the club has sought help from the Brothers Brother Foundation and Global Links for help getting scalpels and cord clamps. For 1,000 kits, the cost of gauze is $600, she said.

Members of the Rivers Club, where she is a member, donated almost 300 bars of soap, she said.

The Kenyan hospital requested 2,500 kits this year, and the local club finished 600 yesterday. It is getting help from other clubs and will have another session to finish the kits. The goal is to send them next month.

To ensure that the kits reach the hospital, she said the club and its partner in Kenya, KMET, will use connections with diplomatic staff and Planned Parenthood representatives. KMET is a non-governmental organization that advocates for health, education and development in rural western Kenya.

Donations to the Birthing Kit Project can be made to Zonta Club of Pittsburgh and sent to treasurer Heidi Fenton, 312-B Denniston Ave., Pittsburgh 15206.

Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626.
First published on January 13, 2008 at 12:00 am

Zonta of Pittsburgh Assembles Birthing Kits

WHEN: Saturday, January 12, 2008
WHERE: The Bank Tower – Suite 1100, Downtown Pittsburgh
TIME: 9:30 a.m. till 12:00 a.m.
RSVP: Beth Stifel 412-486-8067 bethstifel@verizon.net
NOTE: Brunch provided

WHY MAKE BIRTHING KITS?
In 2005, 536,000 women died of maternal causes in childbirth. Developing countries accounted for 99% of these deaths. For every woman who dies in childbirth, another 30women incur injuries and infections - many of which are often painful, disabling, embarrassing, and lifelong. BIRTHING KITS FOR KENYA provide for a clean birth that may decrease the risk of death from infection and bleeding. 60 million women give birth each year with the assistance of a Traditional Birth Attendant or no assistance at all.

CONTENTS OF A
BIRTHING KIT FOR KENYA
1m x 1m plastic sheet
for the mother to lie on
A piece of soap
2 gloves
3 gauze squares
3 cord ties
Sterile scalpel blade.
All contained in a small
press seal plastic bag

Zonta.org Features Pittsburgh Club

Peggy Schmiedecke, Golden Z Chair of the Zonta Club of Pittsburgh, submitted an article to Zonta International. Our club's presence at the Global Problems, Global Solutions: Saving the Earth and Its People Conference at La Roche College, (and no doubt, Peggy's good writing) caught the attention of the folks at Zonta.org

You can read her article on the Zonta International Web site here:

Pittsburgh Club Support's U.N. Millennium Development Goal to Improve Maternal Health

88th Anniversary of Zonta and New Member Induction November 8, 2007

The Zonta Club of Pittsburgh celebrated Zonta’s 88th anniversary with a yellow cake complete with yellow roses, (the Zonta symbol) at the November 8th meeting at the Rivers Club, Pittsburgh, PA. New members were inducted at the meeting including, Peggy Schmiedecke, Georgiana Likar, Judy Gates, and Beverly School. Judy Kelly and Patrice Romzick are also new members but are not in the above photo. Area Director Gerry Johnson was our guest and helped with the induction ceremony.

Two guest speakers from the Council of Jewish Women discussed the Silent Witness Program. A spirited discussion ensued during the remainder of the evening and all agreed that it was both a productive and enjoyable meeting.

For the December meeting, we will visit the Phipps Conservatory and view the Chihuly Glass Exhibit on the evening of December 13th. Those members and guests who plan to attend should email Lee Fogarty ef0225@aol.com who will be handling our booking at the Phipps.

Respectfully submitted,

Georgiana Likar
Zonta Club of Pittsburgh

Global Problems, Global Solutions: Saving the Earth and Its People Conference

The Zonta Club of Pittsburgh participated in the Global Problems, Global Solutions: Saving the Earth and Its People Conference, hosted by La Roche College, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, on October 26 and 27, 2007. "We are proud to host this coming together of social organizations, educational institutions and concerned citizens. Together, we must work to make more people aware of social injustices so they may be changed and, as a result, provide a brighter future for those who will be the leaders of tomorrow," noted Paul Le Blanc, Dean of the La Roche College School of Arts and Sciences, and one of the founding organizers of the Global Problems, Global Solutions event in 2004.

This year's conference focused on awareness of important global issues. The theme was based on the U.N. Millennium Goal No. 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability. The vision for a better world goes beyond global warming and the earth's sustainability issues. "The issues of The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are embedded and not mutually exclusive," said Carol Welch, U.S. MDG Campaign Coordinator.

SUPPORT U.N. MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS CAMPAIGN

The United Nations has put forth the following eight goals (The U.N. Millennium Development Goals) to be met by 2015 to help combat the harsh facts of life faced by so many people:

1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
4. Reduce Child Mortality
5. Improve Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development.

The Zonta Club of Pittsburgh's involvement in the two day event gave Zonta a voice concerning our mission and allowed us to advocate as a U. N. Non-Government Organization (NGO). Members: Georgiana Likar, Jane Whitmore, Patrice Romzick, Peggy Schmiedecke, and Nancy Crouthamel attended and worked the Clubs booth. This event enabled us to interconnect many aspects of our mission by serving as a means of public relations, membership recruitment, educating our guests on key issues, and bringing awareness to a service project that the Club is launching The Birthing Kit Project. The Birthing Kit Project ties directly into MDG No. 5 with regard to improving maternal health. This project is saving lives and is so critically needed.

While an annual decline of 5.5 percent in maternal mortality ratios between 1990 and 2015 is required to achieve MDG No. 5, the latest statistics released jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.N. Children's Fund, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Bank show an annual decline of less than one percent.

In a recently issued, UNFPA said the world's maternal mortality ratio (the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births) is declining too slowly to meet one of the eight U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDG No.5), which aims to improve maternal health and prevent women from dying in pregnancy and childbirth.

In 2005, 536,000 women died of maternal causes, compared to 576,000 in 1990. Ninety-nine percent of these deaths occurred in developing countries.

The Zonta Club of Pittsburgh, under the leadership of Co-Chairs Lee Fogarty, Ph.D. and Elizabeth Stifel, M.D., is in the final planning stages for the Club's Birthing Kit Project. It is the Club's goal to have our first Birthing Kit Assembly meeting in January. Dr. Fogarty learned about this project while attending the Zonta International Convention in Melbourne, where Districts 23 & 24 initiated this project. The work of the Australian Clubs has paved the way for us and we are grateful to our Zonta sisters for sharing their experience and knowledge so that we may duplicate their efforts, hopefully resulting in the saving of more lives.

Respectfully submitted by:
Peggy Schmiedecke
The Zonta Club of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA
pittsburghzonta@gmail.com


*Top Photo Right to left, Peggy Schmiedecke - Golden Z Chair, La Roche student, Issouf ag Maha - Mayor Tchirozenrine, Niger, Nancy Crouthamel - Club President, Geoffrey de Laforcade - Connecticut Wesleyan University

Pittsburgh Zontian Awarded Governor's Choice at International Conference

Two hundred Zontians met at the 2007 50th Bieniaal District Conference on September 28th-30th at the Historic Athenaeum Hotel at Chautauqua Institution, hosted by the Jamestown, NY club. District 4 consists of Western New York State, Western Pennsylvania, and South and Central Ontario, Canada. In District 4 tradition, District Governor Sandy Travers presented awards in recognition of outstanding service.

Our very own Peggy Schmiedecke was awarded the 2007 Governor's Choice Award. District Governor Sandy presented the award at the Saturday evening banquet with these words of acknowledgment and recognition:

"This Zontian was the President of her club during the last two years. She is one of most dedicated women to the Zonta spirit that I have ever met. She led her club with integrity and honesty. She is a leader in the true sense of the word. I’m so very happy to have met her and our paths crossed. She was instrumental in organizing her club to be recognized for bringing awareness of violence against women which is a global issue. Her previous club, the Three River Pittsburg North Club, took a petition of signatures to State Senator Jane Clare Orie asking the state legislature to recognize the 16 Days of Activism. The State agreed and a news conference was held to focus the senate and the public’s attention to the issues of domestic violence. She is totally committed to Advancing the Status of Women. I would like you to meet a hero of mine and a woman for whom I hold great admiration. Peggy Schmiedecke."

Congratulations Peggy. We are proud of you and fortunate to have you in our club.