We are a tiny tender green shoot that sprung up gracefully although unexpectedly. Joanne Jorissen Chiwaula moved to Malawi in March of 2005 to volunteer as a midwife in the public hospital. When her stories of the women, their babies, and Bwaila hospital reached friends, family, and strangers back home, a stream of emotional and financial support began flowing. Joanne has used the money donated to buy formula for the surviving infants of women who die during childbirth, to support a community feeding program, to pay school fees for young adults, and buy basic goods for these families and severely ill women during postpartum.
AMHI was incorporated in June 2007 as a Texas based non-profit whose mission is to work towards improved maternal and child health in Malawi by spreading the word at home and funding our sister non-profit in Malawi. Chimwemwe mu'bereki (Joyful Motherhood)* is the Malawian sister organization founded by Joanne to carry out the work in Malawi.
Joyful Motherhood Staff
Beatrice Namaleu is the heart of Chimwemwe mu'bereki. She is a Malawian nurse with over 28 years experience in maternal and child health. Beatrice is our shining star giving much more self and her heart to her work than we could ever ask. She follows orphaned newborns from the hospital back to their villages often traveling for hours on the back of a bicycle to track a single baby. In the future we would like to purchase a vehicle to facilitate visits but for now she uses public transportation, bicycles, and occasional volunteer drivers to help her reach those in need of care.
AMHI Board Members
Joanne Jorissen Chiwaula obtained a A.B. from Brown University in International Development and then studied at the University of California at San Francisco to become a Certified-Nurse Midwife and Women’s Nurse Practitioner. Awed by birth, inspired by women’s strength, and deeply disturbed by both the prolific grief and resounding silence regarding maternal and infant mortality, Joanne is driven by desire to serve women who often find quality care in scarce supply. She is committed to efforts making birth and childhood safe and joyous experiences for poor women and their families.
Leanne Dougherty first experienced Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer in Congo Brazzaville and Cote d'Ivoire where she worked on community development issues such as water & sanitation and AIDS prevention from 1996-1998. Since then, she has worked in more than 15 African countries providing assistance to government agencies and non-profit organizations in the development and implementation of Monitoring and Evaluation systems to measure program performance. Leanne is a mother of two. Her wish is that every mother will have the opportunity to ensure that their child receives everything they need to achieve their dreams.
Kim Kessler is an associate with the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, in New York, New York. She has represented corporate clients, non-profits and individuals in a wide array of litigations, regulatory matters, and investigations. While at Debevoise, she has also maintained an extensive pro bono practice in the areas of criminal justice, civil rights, and immigration law. From 2005 to 2006, Ms. Kessler served as a law clerk to the Honorable Victor Marrero in the Southern District of New York. Ms. Kessler received a J.D. degree, magna cum laude from New York University, where she was a recipient of the Anne Petluck Poses Memorial Prize in recognition of outstanding work in a legal clinic for her representation of indigent defendants in federal court. She received an A.B. in political science from Brown University in 1997.
Dr. Philip Anglewicz has been intrigued by health issues in developing countries since he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi from 1998 to 2000. After Peace Corps and a two-year stint at an international health NGO Philip moved to Philadelphia to start a PhD in Demography at the University of Pennsylvania. At UPenn, he became engaged in a longitudinal data collection study on fertility, AIDS and social interactions in rural Malawi, and he used these data to write his dissertation (completed in 2007). Currently, Philip continues his work in health research in sub-Saharan Africa as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. His particular areas of research interest are migration, intergenerational transfers, biomarker measures of health, and survey methodology.
Maternal and Child Health Policy Adviser
Genevieve Grabman is a public health lawyer with expertise in maternal and child health policy and programming. She has a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University. From 1996 to 1998, she served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Kyrgyzstan where she worked at the United Nations Children’s Fund on health and human rights programs. Following her Peace Corps service, Ms. Grabman was the Kyrgyzstan country manager for a health sector reform project supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank. She later was a human rights consultant with the POLICY Project, a USAID reproductive health and HIV/AIDS initiative, and a legislative and policy associate at the Center for Health and Gender Equity and the Global Health Council.
* AMHI currently provides assistance to CU in the form of management, program development, and financial support. AMHI reserves the right to cease support of CU for any reason, including a determination by AMHI's Board of Directors that support of CU is inconsistent with AMHI's charitable purposes under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Based on CU's stated purposes and track record, AMHI believes that its support of CU is, and will remain, consistent with AMHI's tax exempt purposes.
