A Year in Pictures
Medical Aid Films 2017 Annual Review Watch our slideshow, highlighting some of our projects and achievements across last year. From celebrating our 10th Anniversary at BAFTA to film projects in Nepal, Nigeria, South Sudan, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Nigeria we had a busy and productive year: The films we produce save lives, and with your support…
Workshop: Reaching Men Through Health Films
Medical Aid Films is running a workshop for maternal and child health professionals/health promotion professionals on Friday 23rd November in Lusaka, Zambia. The half-day workshop will discuss findings from a rural health films research project and explore implications for men’s engagement interventions and wider health promotion policy. Friday 23rd November 2018 9am – 1pm with lunch…
Watch Badra’s story – training midwives using film
Addressing maternal and neonatal health using educational films. Somaliland has one of the highest maternal morbidity and mortality rates in the world. The lifetime risk of maternal death is 1 out of every 22 women. With over 30 films in Somali, the work of Medical Aid Films supports the training, continued development and e-learning of…
Why Sophie Supports our BBC Radio 4 Appeal
When recording our appeal earlier this month, Sophie Ellis-Bextor told us why she supports Medical Aid Films. Listen to her share about her own experience of having her first two boys prematurely. And, as a result, how this prompted her to consider the importance of supporting women around the world through their pregnancy and childbirth. It…
Sophie Ellis-Bextor lends her voice to Medical Aid Films’ BBC Appeal.
Singer-songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor joined us this week at BBC Broadcasting House to record the script for our upcoming appeal. Currently expecting her fifth child, Sophie is passionate about maternal health issues following complications in her first two pregnancies. Skilled medical staff safely delivered her boys prematurely by caesarean section. This experience made her realise that…
Our BBC Radio 4 Appeal – taking to the airwaves
BBC Radio 4 Appeal to feature Medical Aid Films in October. First of all, we are thrilled. The appeal is a great opportunity for us to demonstrate how media can transform the health and wellbeing of women and children, and of course, raise money! As film is a fantastic tool to communicate vital health information,…
Zika crowd funder: Help us transform the lives of those affected by the Zika virus…
Test your knowledge with our new Zika Quiz ! What is the problem? Zika hit the headlines in 2015 as the newest tropical borne viral infection, while adults don’t usually suffer severe complications, the implications for pregnant women and their newborn babies are life-changing. Since its peak, the virus has subsided and the focus…
Giving Tuesday – Yoga in the Fields
What is Giving Tuesday? Tuesday 28th of November, following Black Friday, has been coined as ‘Giving Tuesday’ by the media, large corporates and charities. Everyone is encouraged to partake in charitable activities and fundraise for worthy causes. This is the first year we will be celebrating Giving Tuesday and are running a fundraiser in our local area so would…
New animations from our participatory film workshop, part of the ground-breaking Girls’ Education South Sudan Programme
Our latest films are part of a ground-breaking education programme in South Sudan, where girls’ lives are being transformed by access to education, in a country where on-going conflict continues to have a devastating effect on schooling and the education sector. Working with Mott MacDonald’s UK Aid funded programme, Girls’ Education South Sudan (GESS), Medical…
Watch our first 360/VR film!
360/VR films are providing us with new and immersive experiences, changing the way we see the world. We are excited to share our first 360/VR film. Shot in rural Zambia, the film documents our work with the Ministry of Health running community health screenings over the past two years. For the first time ever, we are able to take…
10th Anniversary celebrations at BAFTA 195 and brand new Showreel
On Monday 11th September we celebrated our 10th Anniversary at the incredible BAFTA 195 Piccadilly venue. The night saw 140 guests join us to fill the fabulous David Lean room, celebrating 10 years of saving lives through film. We were delighted to welcome renowned film director and long-term Patron Gurinder Chadha OBE, well-known actors Helen George and…
A new film empowering girls and women with knowledge about menstruation
Having a period is a natural process and part of normal life for girls and women. However for many girls’ their journey into adolescence can be challenging and they may face significant pressures and stigma. Filmed in Kibera, Kenya, our new film provides an overview of menstruation and the processes that occur during puberty. The…
New film celebrating the vital role of midwives globally
International Day of the Midwife celebrates the vital role midwives play in supporting women around the world through their pregnancy and childbirth. In many parts of the world however, there is an increased medicalisation of pregnancy and childbirth, with some women experiencing unnecessary treatments and procedures that can have negative effects on both the mother…
Transforming malaria health education using mobile animation in Zimbabwe
Half the population of Zimbabwe live in areas with a high risk of malaria transmission. In response to the need for improved awareness about the disease, we have been working with Econet Wireless on an innovative project to reach health workers and communities with vital information – on their mobile phones. With over 9 million subscribers,…
Girls’ Education South Sudan – Inspire. Educate. Transform.
Our latest film showcases a ground-breaking education programme in South Sudan, where girls’ lives are being transformed by access to education, in a country where ongoing conflict continues to have a devastating effect on schooling and the education sector. South Sudan is one of the toughest places on earth to be a girl in 2017. Famine has…
A new film about safety in fistula surgery
Obstetric fistula is one of the most devastating and serious injuries that can occur during childbirth. It affects between 50,000 and 100,000 women each year, mainly in low-income countries, and it is estimated that more than 2 million women live with untreated fistula in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa alone. Women who experience obstetric fistula not…
We’re celebrating 10 years of transforming lives through film
2017 is a very special year for us at Medical Aid Films as we celebrate our 10th anniversary. During the year we will be reflecting on what we have achieved, sharing stories of our work and its impact around the world, and revealing some exciting plans for the future. But first, we would like to…
Watch our 2016 show reel
We are so excited to share our brand new show reel showcasing some of our work in 2016. We have some very exciting plans for next year (our 10th Anniversary) which we cannot wait to share with you all in early 2017. Please help us continue to transform more lives through the power of film,…
A new film about our collaboration with The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Women’s access to family planning and safe abortion care services is a real and current global health problem. 225 million women who want to delay or prevent pregnancy have no access to family planning globally and there are 22 million unsafe abortions each year. The majority of these women live in under-resourced countries and more…
Read our Annual Review 2015 to see how we’re transforming lives through film
Medical Aid Films is a unique organisation bringing together health and medical expertise with creative film makers, in response to the global crisis in women’s and child health.
Somaliland – SLNMA
Helping to rebuild the health system in Somaliland The Somaliland Nursing and Midwifery Association, is helping to change the health care system in Somaliland. This autonomous region in Somalia has among the highest rates of maternal and child mortality in the world. The health infrastructure was destroyed by civil war, with doctors and nurses having…
In the recording studio with Her Excellency Toyin Saraki!
We were thrilled to be recording today with Her Excellency Toyin Saraki, for our new film A Midwife Like Me – which we are producing in collaboration with the International Confederation of Midwives. This film will celebrate the role of midwives around the world and the importance of normal birth. Midwives play such an invaluable role in…
Films in new languages for health worker training in Nigeria
We are delighted to launch a suite of 11 maternal and child health films in two new languages – Yoruba and Hausa – to support the development an innovative health worker training programme in Nigeria. This programme uses a tablet-based curriculum, developed with InStrat Global Health Solutions, Digital Campus, mPowering Frontline Health Workers and Ondo…
New films about diabetes in pregnancy
Diabetes is considered to be the biggest global health crisis faced today. Around 422 million adults live with the condition, resulting in 1.5 million deaths per year, and these numbers are expected to double in the next 20 years. But one type of diabetes that often goes unrecognized is gestational diabetes, which develops in pregnancy and…
A new partnership to transform health worker training in Nigeria
Medical Aid Films, in partnership with InStrat Global Health Solutions, Digital Campus and mPowering Frontline Health Workers, are working with Ondo State Primary Health Care Development Board, to launch a new tablet-based maternal and child health training curriculum for nurses, midwives, and community health workers in Ondo State, Nigeria. The 12-week pilot programme supports in-service…
What is an obstructed labour? Watch our training film for midwives
Obstructed labour is one of the most common causes of death during childbirth in developing countries. Labour is considered obstructed when the baby cannot descend through the pelvis, despite strong uterine contractions, which leads to wide-ranging and dangerous complications for both the mother and newborn. Medical Aid Films is delighted to launch Obstructed Labour: An…
Watch how film is being used to help measure warning signs in pregnancy
Congratulations to researchers from King’s College London, whose Microlife Vital Signs Alert (VSA) device has been nominated as one of 30 ‘high-impact innovations to save lives’ in Reimagining Global Health, the inaugural report of the Innovation Countdown 2030 initiative. The Microlife VSA is the world’s first medical device to detect shock and high blood pressure…
New films in Kinyarwanda
We are excited to launch two films in Kinyarwanda this week. Is your child sick? (covering symptoms of malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia in children) and What pregnant women need to eat (covering nutrition in pregnancy to support the health of mother and baby) are the first of our films to be dubbed in this language,…
How can film transform lives? Watch our showreel
Watch now for a glimpse of some of the films we’ve produced in the last year. Well, what a year it’s been! We’ve produced 30 new films this year – films about respectful maternity care, puberty, and fistula nursing care – and in new languages such as Bemba, Luganda and Kinyarwanda. They’ve been watched over a million…
Gurinder Chadha on Radio 4
Where can you hear The Clash and Bally Sagoo uttered in the same sentence? On Desert Island Discs of course, where Gurinder Chadha – writer, film director and Patron of Medical Aid Films – was discussing her life and musical influences this morning. Click here to hear Gurinder talking about her background and growing up…
Caring for women with fistula. Watch our training film for nurses
Fistula is a devastating condition caused by childbirth, affecting an estimated 1 million women worldwide – it causes constant leaking of urine and faeces, which leads to shame and social stigma, and other health complications. Women with fistula are often outcast from their families and communities, and live in desperate isolation suffering from the physical…
