Kangu.org Focuses on Crowdfunding Safe Births for Women in Developing Countries

Today, Kangu.org — a philanthropic platform that enables donors to crowdfund safe birth environments for pregnant women in developing countries — announced the launch of a new gift-giving feature, just in time for Mother’s Day.

The tool allows users to contribute to the cost of critical medical services provided to a mom-to-be, on behalf of a special mom in their life. Each donation made on behalf of a mother will generate a personalized Mother’s Day e-card with details of the pregnant mom’s story.

Each day, 800 women in developing countries die from a complication related to pregnancy or childbirth. 90 percent of these deaths could be prevented with access to proper medical care and a safe and clean labor environment. Seeing an opportunity to save more than 250,000 lives each year, CEO Casey Santiago founded Kangu.org in 2012, in an effort to provide safe births to mothers who live in regions of the world with the highest maternal mortality rates, including areas of Uganda, Nepal, Burundi and India.

Kangu partners with local non-profit hospitals and clinics in developing countries to offer life-saving healthcare to pregnant women and their newborns. The average cost of these services is around $200, a small fee for the difference between life and death in some births.

Kangu’s social media platform provides citizen philanthropists the ability to connect with, read and see photographs of mothers from other countries that will benefit from the services offered. These services include prenatal care, delivery by a trained profession, emergency care and postnatal care. Users of the site can see how much of each woman’s birth has been funded, as well as donate as little as $10 towards the medical care and safe birth environment provided by Kangu’s partners.

“For the more than 2 billion women living on less than $2 a day, safe birth services are simply out of reach,” said Santiago. “On Mother’s Day – and every day – Kangu provides the opportunity to join together in celebration of motherhood, and to see the impact, one woman at a time.”

CEO Casey Santiago is no stranger to philanthropy. Before founding Kangu, Santiago worked for fifteen years in global health, microfinance and tech. She was also an early staff member at Kiva.org, and has worked in over 20 countries.

“I found that people were increasingly aware of the issue of preventable maternal mortality, but an easy way to be a part of the solution hadn’t been presented,” said Santiago. “Kangu’s crowdfunding technology allows people concerned about the issue to take simple, concrete and affordable action.”

To learn more about Kangu or to make a donation this Mother’s Day, visit www.Kangu.org