On April 15th, 2008 BESTWA director Andy Perkins sat in the living room of his daughter Candi’s home while she had a beautiful midwife attended birth.  Candi delivered a healthy baby girl– his granddaughter Zoey.

Four days later on April 19th, Andy got a phone call from Liberia.  The Liberian director Daniel Mellish was calling to say that his daughter, Selah Daniel, had just had an unattended home birth because there were no midwives available.  Selah’s baby girl, Samelria Dennis, lived for 10 minutes, struggled to breathe, and then passed away.  Andy had been working in Liberia for years, and knew the statistics about high neonatal mortality rates.  He also knew that there were less than 400 trained midwives for a country of 3.5 million. That night the statistics became real.  He decided immediately that BESTWA would make it a priority to change the odds.

Two months later, BESTWA purchased property for the Samelria Dennis Prenatal and Well-Baby Clinic, and in August 2008 the cornerstone was laid.

The vision is for not only the Samelria Dennis Clinic to provide prenatal care and a safe place for women to have midwife attended births, but also for it to provide the environment for a school of midwifery.  Liberian women will be able to come and receive midwifery training that will affect outcomes in both clinic and home births in the surrounding areas.

Located just outside of Buchanan, Liberia’s second largest city, The Samelria Dennis Clinic is currently under construction.