Sr Chacky was the first midwife over 5 years ago that wanted to learn how to help babies breathe. She wanted nothing in return, she simply wanted to help those babies that didn’t breathe at birth. She was a rare woman and due to regulatory changes she was unable to be employed as a Midwife by the hospital. She needed to go back to school to get her secondary certificate first. But she could not afford the tuition without employment or sponsorship.
Midwife Vision was approached a couple of years later by a family member of the late Uncle Gilbert. His posthumous sponsorship was to go to the education of African children. And his family felt that since Sr Chacky saved children’s lives she was indirectly contributing to their future education. She was sponsored and will soon be completing her studies which means not only a return to the Midwifery profession but also to the realm of teaching; to pass the torch to other midwives, doctors and student, in not only how to help babies breathe but other maternal and infant emergencies and basic care.
To be a midwife, she says, “takes heart,” and she certainly has a big heart of her own. As head of the clinical education of Help Babies Breathe at the Midwife Vision Clinic at Amana Hospital she went on a conference to Namibia to represent Midwife Vision, network and learn and share maternal and infant healthcare skills. She says, “I learned many things from [the] conference. Now I have [the] confidence to stand myself, and do presentation well.” The conference was the ICM (International Confederation of Midwives) African Regional Conference (the biggest Midwifery conference in Africa).
We want to congratulate her on her successful trip! She has never left Tanzania and never owned a passport, never represented an NGO/NFP in Maternal and Child health and never met other practitioners from other countries in the context of a conference. She is an incredibly dedicated, skilled and heart-full midwife and deserves every success with Midwife Vision and beyond into her future. No one truly cares more for the “mama’s na mtotos” (mothers and babies) of Tanzania more than Theresia Chacky. Hongera sana!!! (Congratulations!!!)
