Last December heralded the founding of Liberia’s next generation of certified midwives. The first enrollment of 45 students, pictured above, were accepted to the Midwifery Training School of Southeast Liberia, run jointly by Merlin and the Ministry of Health. Based in Zwedru, the two-year course will produce the first class of graduates in 2010. In its latest report on maternal mortality in fragile states, "All Mothers Matter", Merlin is calling for 50 percent of global health funding to be channeled into strengthening health systems, with 25 percent being used to train and retrain health workers.