The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has spearheaded the formation of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood in the southern Asian country of Georgia.

ADRA is implementing the South Ossetia Health Care Initiative Project in southeastern Georgia. The first phase of this project worked with women to decrease their vulnerability to deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth. Now it has expanded to increase knowledge of health care professionals and to improve standards within health care facilities. The project is working with four regional hospitals and 26 outpatient clinics.

Topics covered in weekly lectures include prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care, birth spacing for healthy mothers, and the effect of economic barriers on health care. The educational process reaches teens through discussion groups on reproductive health and an arts competition focused on safe motherhood.

The White Ribbon Alliance is a collaboration of international and local non-governmental organizations working with governments to make safe motherhood a priority. Organized in 1999, the Alliance is a united, multi-faceted effort to decrease the number of maternal deaths related to childbirth. Approximately 154 organizations representing 18 countries have joined the Alliance.

Located on the southern border of Russia, Georgia is mountainous with a population of some 5 million people.