This picture shows single mother Joyce with her baby son Prince whom she delivered in the local hospital thanks to the free healthcare provided to pregnant women over the last few years in Ghana. Free healthcare for pregnant women is making a real difference, more and more women are now having their children in hospital, getting the care and treatment that a few years ago would have been too expensive to access.

She lives in Kunkua Village in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region, Ghana. The Upper East Region has only 9 Doctors in the entire region, meaning 1 Doctor to every 1 million patients. Money raised for Oxfam is being used to pay health worker salaries, to build clinics and provide equipment. But more is needed to meet increasing demand and expand health services in rural parts of the country where health services are too far away or inadequate.

Since fees were abolished for pregnant women in Ghana, close to half a million more women have received professional care during pregnancy – half a million women who would otherwise have struggled to pay, or would have missed out on expert care completely. In Ghana, the number of women who die during childbirth has dropped from 560 to 451 for every 100,000 births in recent years. This is brilliant progress. But that number still needs to get a lot lower. In the UK it’s 8 and in Germany it’s just 4.

By hosting a get together for Oxfam on International Women's Day, the money you raise will go towards ensuring women like Joyce have the professional care they need during childbirth.