Good morning. Hey, it's Tuesday. So, in Sierra Leone at Quaidu Government Hospital, the Maternal Center of Excellence just passed its first major milestone, delivering its 500th baby. 500 babies Hank in just a few months. God, I love a baby. Nothing makes me happier than seeing babies, babies, babies. Little statements of hope in a broken world. In your video last week, you talked about how lucky we are to have problems because the alternative to problems is nothingness. And God, are babies a problem? They're loud and fussy and wildly inept and they don't know how to poop in a toilet. And god, do I love them. They're just so stinking cute. I

mean, they are literally genetically engineered to make me want to care for them. And it works. I love them. Now, Hank, I have a pretty straightforward take when it comes to babies, which is that having babies should be required of no one, but safe for everyone. But just 20 years ago, Sierra Leone was the deadliest place to give birth in the world. mothers died of hemorrhage and preeacclampsia and especially for want of safe emergency C-sections. But that is no longer the case, Hank, because Sierra Leone's maternal mortality rate has dropped by 78%. So to have a functioning maternal and child healthcare system, you don't just need nurses and midwives and operating rooms,

right? Because like say what if you're CIA Jamisa, a 33year-old mother of three who's pregnant and lives 2 hours away from Kaido government hospital in the maternal center of excellence. Seia went to her local clinic to give birth as planned, but then ran into complications and needed an emergency C-section. So, how do you do that? Well, you need to get to the hospital as quickly and safely as possible, ideally while receiving care on the way, which means you need an ambulance. Now, Hank, back in 2019, and prepare to be jump scared by my youth and promise. I said a woman delivering at home or at a local clinic who needs a C-section will usually find that there is no ambulance to take her

to the hospital and so her best chance will be a long ride dying on the back of a motorbike. But that's starting to change Hank because as Joyce Sessi who oversees ambulance services for the Kono district put it for pregnant women every one minute is very important. So, Hank, I haven't talked about this, but we recently had a family emergency in my house that involved an ambulance ride. And it was truly terrifying, but I was so grateful to the EMS professionals for their calmness and for their ability to get my family member where they needed to be. And Sia reported feeling similarly, scared about her birth not going to plan and then anxious about traveling to a hospital she'd never

visited to be cared for by people she didn't know. So Hank, when I first visited Sierra Leone seven years ago, nurse midwife Isata Dumbaya, who was just named a time woman of the year by the way, told me that the time between knowing a C-section was necessary and actually getting it done had been 12 hours on average. But now the so-called decision to incision time is much faster because there are safe, clean, wellstaffed, and supported operating suites. And so thanks to the speed of the ambulance services and the immediate availability of an operating room, CIA was able to deliver a healthy baby boy via emergency C-section. And both mother and baby are doing great. Speaking of

babies, Hank, because the MCE contains Sierra Leone's first NICU, it has already become a critical site of care for premature infants. There have been over 130 babies who received care in the NICU. And because the MCOE is a teaching facility, nurses and midwives and doctors are being trained there to take what they learn and spread it across the country. I'm again reminded, Hank, that long-term problems demand long-term solutions. And after 7 years of working with partners in health and the Sierra Leoneian Ministry of Health, we are seeing the transformation that can happen. People, mothers and children who could have died are instead surviving every week in Kono. And we as a

community have played a small but significant role in that story. Hank, the single biggest donor to the maternal center of excellence has been good. Your idea for a store that donates 100% of its profit to charity. Goodstore has donated over 11.5 million to support everything from ambulance services to the NICU. And we're hoping we can bump that number up significantly with our new Mother's Day gift box, which is lovely. It's $50. You get all kinds of wonderful stuff, including tea and a tea strainer and some soap and chocolates and lip balm. It's just it's a great care package. Is it for moms? Of course. But is Mother's Day also a complicated holiday? Of course. So, you can get it

for anybody. You can get it for your buddy. You can I'm I got one for my best friend Chris because he loves chocolate, lip balm, and candles. But listen, heck, if there's a way that I can show love for my mom, who has done a lot of sacrifices over the years, and frankly, because she has two boys, has not often received Mother's Day presents, then I want to. And plus, 100% of the profit goes to support moms and newborns in the Kono district in Sierra Leone. Like, what could be a better way to spend money? There's a link in the doobly-doo where you can also find lots of other Mother's Day goodies for a wide variety of price ranges. Hank, without good store, the maternal center of excellence

might still be under construction, and those 500 babies might have had a very different experience. I am so grateful to you for your stupid idea to build a business that donates 100% of its profit to charity. What a great stupid idea you had. 500 babies, Hank, and more being born every day. More mothers receiving dignified care in a well- supplied hospital. That gives me hope. Just when I feel despair creeping in at the edges, I am reminded that together we can accomplish extraordinary things, even as it is also true that together we can accomplish catastrophic things.

Collaboration is our species superpower. And yes, we must be very careful how we use that superpower. But I am so grateful to you, Hank, and to all of Nerd Fightiteria for in this case at least using that power for good. Hank, I'll see you on