Emory’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing received a grant of approximately $8.1 million last week to conduct a project to decrease maternal and newborn mortality rates in rural areas of Ethiopia.

This grant, provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is the largest single grant the School of Nursing has ever received, according to an Nov. 11 University press release.

Emory will work with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, the Regional Health Bureaus, the John Snow Research and Training Institute, the University Research Corporation and two regional Ethiopian universities to carry out this two-and-a-half year project to increase maternal and newborn survival rates in rural parts of Ethiopia.

The two regional Ethiopian universities that will help with this project have yet to be determined.

According to principal investigator Lynn Sibley, associate professor in the Nursing School and Rollins School of Public Health, newborn and maternal mortality rates are high in Ethiopia, so those collaborating on the project will work to improve the training for frontline health care workers to ensure better newborn and maternal services at the time of birth.

Members of the project will also make an effort to increase demand for these newborn and maternal services in Ethiopia and to advocate for healthy self-care behaviors, according to the press release.

Reports from the World Health Organization indicate that the lifetime risk of dying during childbirth in Ethiopia is one in 27 and the infant mortality rate is about 77 deaths per 1,000 births there.

The total population in Ethiopia is approximately 80 million.

Sibley said this grant from the Gates Foundation will cover the funding needed for faculty salaries, supplies, traveling, stipends for four doctoral students to conduct research and other costs incurred by Emory and its partners working on the project.

“The grant is plenty for us to do what we need to do now,” Sibley said. “We are feeling very lucky and grateful to have this.”

Sibley, who worked in Ethiopia from 2001 to 2004, will travel to Ethiopia next month.

While in Ethiopia, Sibley will meet with members of the Ministry of Health and some other key leaders working in the field of maternal and newborn health.

“I’m going to Ethiopia to start laying the ground work there,” Sibley said. “We want to extend what is going on in Ethiopia, not duplicate it.”

The project is still in its preliminary stages, and people are currently being recruited to join the team working on the project, Sibley said.

After the two-and-a-half year project ends, Sibley said she hopes the findings from this project will become part of a national effort to help improve maternal and newborn survival rates in rural parts of Ethiopia.

“If that happens, we hope we will get additional funding to take the next step,” Sibley said.

Fred Sanfilippo, the executive vice president for health affairs, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center and the chairman of Emory Healthcare said in the press release, “This grant from the Gates Foundation will help the Woodruff Health Sciences Center make significant progress toward its vision of transforming health and healing, not only in our own community, but also around the world.”

— Contact Molly Davis.