Cindy Packard, the co-founder of Care for Life, recently appeared on the podcast Guiding Growth, which highlights community leaders. Cindy shared the story of Care for Life’s inception and its long list of successes with the podcast’s listeners.
A practicing midwife, Cindy heard a friend mention the high maternal mortality rate in Africa, and later she read a statistic that more than 50% of African babies were dying because no one was training midwives. Her interest grew, leading Cindy to travel to Mozambique where she witnessed unimaginable extreme poverty. She said, “Most striking to me was the despair…there was no hope…and at that moment I thought, ‘I can do something. I don’t know what, but I can do something’.” And from there Care for Life was born.
A highlight of the podcast was the conversation around Care for Life’s Family Preservation Program’s unique approach to addressing extreme poverty. This approach has a proven track record of results with a 57% reduction in infant mortality and a 78% reduction in maternal mortality. Currently thirty-five staff in Mozambique teach people in the villages to become experts in the program’s eight areas of focus. Each village has about 2,000 people living in it, and more than 80% of village members participate in the Family Preservation Program. It takes approximately 2.5 years for the cycle of self-reliance to be fully developed and operational, and Care for Life can work with four to five villages at a time with its current staff.
The podcast culminated with Cindy explaining the exciting future of Care for Life expanding around the world. A key element of that growth is partnering with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) already on the ground in places experiencing extreme poverty. By training these NGOs in the Family Preservation Program, these NGOs can then utilize this model in the communities where they operate. Care for Life has already seen success with this partnership approach in the country of Sudan.
Listen here for Cindy’s full interview.
We at Care for Life will continue building on our strong heritage, our unique approach, and our tried and tested development model to expand our influence and reach even more lives impacted by extreme poverty. Cindy’s original commitment when viewing conditions of extreme poverty that “I can do something” continues to be the commitment of the entire Care for Life community. Together we have- and we will continue to do something remarkable to establish cycles of self-reliance in the areas of greatest need around the world.