I have spoken with the Charities Advisory Trust (aka Goodgifts), and they are v enthusiastic :
Thank you for contacting us at Good Gifts.
The Charities Advisory Trust, the charity behind the Good Gifts Catalogue, both through Good Gifts and Card Aid, fund various projects to improve maternal health. This includes training for midwives and birth attendants and providing care for women suffering from damage caused during childbirth, for example fistula.
We have partners who provide midwifery training in a wide range of African countries, and in various states in India. They would be thrilled to get extra funding so they could expand their work.
Providing shelters for women, and their families, is something we have done in a hospital in Malawi, and we have funded a maternity ward in a community hospital in India.
I read the reports of the trip with great interest, and thought Carrie?s suggestions very sensible. We?d be happy to consider training for midwives as a Good Gift in the next catalogue. We could try to think up a way of funding the shelters, they are really long stay maternity wards, without the equipment, aren?t they? As one of your bloggers pointed out, here at Good Gifts the money goes on the specific gift. It isn?t pooled, as in Oxfam Unwrapped. Our running costs come from the handling charge and recovered Gift Aid.
We would be delighted to work with the Mumsnet group to give practical help to prevent the startlingly high, and needless, maternal deaths in the developing world. How would you like to proceed. would a meeting be helpful? Or a phone call?
Anyone want to talk to them with me ?