The statistics may appear faceless on paper: 512 deaths for every 100,000 pregnant women in Nigeria, one of the highest maternal mortality rates globally. But they’re not faceless to me. I see the mothers. I see the babies. I have stood in the rooms where those numbers become either tragedies or triumphs.

I work with Together for Healthy Families in Nigeria, a Rotary Foundation Programs of Scale grant-funded initiative. Having just completed its third year, the initiative aims to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality in select areas of Nigeria by 25 percent. To do this, we’re conducting community dialogues and home visits to increase the number of families choosing to get health care in clinical settings rather than at home. We’re also making those services higher quality by providing additional training for health workers.