Help stop 500,000 women dying in childbirth this year

With over 500,000 women around the world expected to die from complications with pregnancy this year, Britons are being urged to raise money to save their lives.

Tabita Koroma from Sierra Leone lost her baby after being in labour for three days and has since been ostracised from her community because she is suffering from fistula, a humiliating physical ailment caused by labour.

But Tabita is lucky to be alive in some respects, as in her country the maternal mortality rate is one woman in eight.

With such deaths easily preventable with basic medical treatment and education the VSO is calling on people in this country to take part in the "Walk for Tabita" fundraiser on Sunday 7th March 2010.