Support one of the most cost-effective programmes in maternal health.

Safe Start at Home is a programme that delivers a bundled package of six proven, low-cost interventions to pregnant women and newborns in Mali and Niger. Each component addresses a leading cause of maternal or neonatal death and is delivered through community health workers and traditional birth attendants directly to women who give birth at home.

Donations support the delivery of pregnancy and delivery bundles to women in the target districts of Mali and Niger. CVD-Mali operates across nine high-need districts in Mali, targeting 130,000+ pregnant women annually. ALIMA and BEFEN operate in the Maradi region of Niger, targeting 76,000+ pregnant women annually.

The total cost per pregnancy served is approximately A$15 to A$21, covering both the pregnancy bundle and the delivery bundle. An A$75 donation, matched by an institutional donor, covers between seven and ten women through a full pregnancy and delivery.

Every intervention in the Safe Start at Home bundle has been validated independently in clinical trials. Misoprostol reduces postpartum haemorrhage by up to 83% in community settings. Azithromycin cuts maternal sepsis risk by 33%. Safe delivery kits reduce neonatal mortality by 32 to 57%. Programme results are tracked in real time by Johns Hopkins University.

In Mali, the programme is implemented by CVD-Mali, led by Dr. Samba Sow, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. In Niger, it is implemented by ALIMA and its local partner BEFEN, who have been operating in the Maradi region since 2009. Both organisations work through existing community health infrastructure, including community health workers, traditional birth attendants, and community relay volunteers.

Every donation made to Safe Start at Home through this campaign is matched dollar for dollar by an institutional donor, up to a total of A$379,000 in matching funds. Your gift immediately goes twice as far. The match pool is limited, so earlier donations maximise the impact of the match.

Tax deductibility depends on your country of residence. Donations made through The Life You Can Save are tax-deductible in the United States and Australia. Please contact us for further information specific to your situation.

In the target districts of Mali and Niger, up to 80% of births happen at home, often without trained attendants or basic medicines. Facility-based care simply does not reach these women. Safe Start at Home was designed specifically to address this gap, delivering interventions through community health workers and traditional birth attendants who are already present in these communities.

Johns Hopkins University, led by Professor Agbessi Amouzou, serves as the independent monitoring, evaluation, and learning partner for Safe Start at Home. JHU provides real-time tracking of distribution, coverage metrics, and health outcomes, with annual reviews conducted alongside the Ministries of Health in Mali and Niger.

Despite carrying one of the world’s highest maternal and neonatal mortality burdens, French-speaking West Africa has been historically underfunded by both official donors and private philanthropy. Safe Start at Home is one of the few comprehensive efforts to address this gap at scale, using proven, low-cost, community-delivered interventions.

Donations to the Safe Start at Home programme will be allocated to either or both Mali and Niger based on the needs of each country at the time the funds are being disbursed by The Life You Can Save to the implementing partners.

The maternal mortality figures cited on this page are drawn from the most recent estimates published by the UN inter-agency group comprising WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, the World Bank, and UNDESA, based on 2023 data published in April 2025. Niger’s maternal mortality ratio is 350 deaths per 100,000 live births, Mali’s is 367, the global average is 197, and the high-income country average is 10. The neonatal mortality reduction estimate of up to 35% is based on a synthesis of clinical trial evidence for the individual interventions in the Safe Start at Home bundle, reviewed by The Life You Can Save’s research team. It represents an estimate of potential impact, not a measured outcome of this specific programme.