Born: 19 December 1960, Chad
Died: NA
Country most active: Chad
Also known as: NA
Chadian obstetrician Grace Kodindo is an advocate for reproductive healthcare in her home countries and internationally. She is also active against female genital mutilation (FGM), drawing attention to the medical dangers of the procedure.
Dr Kodindo received a Canadian governmental grant to attend the Université de Montréal to study medicine. Returning to Chad, she married and had two sons, separating from her husband in the late 1990s.
In the mid-1980s, she trained as a gynaecologist in Sudan for four years. In 1990, Dr Kodindo received a grant from the French government to reduce infant mortality in Chad, then the highest in the world at 800 deaths per 100,000 births. After the grant ran out, she continued her work in hospitals with few resources, gaining an international reputation in the professional community. Dr Kodindo also taught medical students at the University of N’Djamena. Dr. Kodindo received the Chad Medal of Honour in 1997, and the FIGO/Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Distinguished Community Service Award for Emergency Obstetric Care in 2000, and went on to teach at Mailman.
The BBC has produced two documentaries about Dr. Kodindo: 2005’s Dead Mums Don’t Cry about her efforts to reduce the mortality rate of pregnant and childbearing women (women in Chad had a 9% chance of dying at the time), and 2009’s Grace under Fire, about her involvement with a reproductive healthcare program in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the difficulties of childbirth in a war zone. The publicity from Dead Mums Don’t Cry led to the foundation of the non-profit Hope for Grace Kodindo, supporting health programs for women in African countries. As a result, Dr. Kodindo reported to the European Parliament that at Chad’s largest maternity hospital, death in childbirth had dropped from 14% to 2.3% and death during pregnancy had been reduced from 23% to 7.3%. Dr. Kodindo was invited to participate in Columbia University and Marie Stopes International’s RAISE initiative. In 2009, she was awarded the Danish government’s Millennium Development Goal Torch for her work promoting reproductive healthcare for women throughout the world.