Educational Program

There is a need for evidence-based programmes that address nutritional, health, and behavioural factors that impact children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM). In critical cases, hospital treatment is required for children with SAM but post discharge outcomes remain poor. We believe that the time spent in-hospital while children receive treatment for SAM is a valuable opportunity to provide programs for primary caregivers (mainly mothers) to target underlying causes and consequences of SAM.

Olbalbal Ward of Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is home to nearly 12 000 marginalized Maasai pastoralists. Women and children suffer most from macro/micro-nutrient deficiencies in part due to a cultivation ban within NCA, plus economic and transportation poverty reducing access to fruits and vegetables. Infrequent market days provide low quantity and quality foods unaffordable to most. Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) are frontline maternal child health (MCH) providers within NCA, with minimal supplies, training, and linkages to formal health care.

Every minute a child somewhere in the world dies of malaria; and 90% of these deaths occur in Africa. Currently there is a big gap in the availability of high quality malaria diagnosis, especially at community level in African countries. In partnership with Mobile Malaria Labs (Momala), Amref Health Africa will close this gap. We will increase the capacity of peripheral laboratories and improve the accuracy in diagnosing malaria, subsequently improving appropriate treatment and drastically reducing over-consumption of anti-malarial medicines.

The project will involve a community health service focusing on reducing neonatal and under 5 mortality and morbidity rates. It will build on a collaboration with 501 Village Health Team members (VHTs) to improve awareness and demand for healthcare services in the catchment area. The VHTs are key in linking the community to health facilities. We propose to enhance these linkages by forming an electronic messaging platform where households are able to remotely and directly consult health workers and VHTs using phone SMS.

Birth asphyxia causes up to 1.8 million newborn deaths and stillbirths every year. This global tragedy can be prevented by effectively Helping Babies Breathe at the time of birth. Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) has been shown to reduce newborn mortality by up to 47%. Such mortality impact is however not sustained due to rapid skills deterioration. We propose to improve sustainability of HBB’s impact by increasing skills retention with an innovative mobile application called HBB Prompt.

We have set up our manufacturing facility in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India to make 3,000 pads/day. Saathi is launching by embarking on a 1,000,000 Pad Initiative with Ekal Vidyalaya, one of India’s largest education NGOs, which has a network of over 56,000 schools in every states in India to distribute 1M pads to rural girls in Ekal villages. Ekal has identified a female healthcare worker in each of the 100 villages Saathi plans to launch its initial 1,000,000 pad initiative this year.

In Lima, Peru a high proportion of pregnant women suffer from poor nutrition and its consequences, including anemia, gestational diabetes, and neural tube defects in their infants. The Ministry of Health (MoH) has made reducing maternal anemia a national priority.We propose Project Sáname a community-based prenatal care initiative that integrates nutrition education, social support, income generation, and collaboration with the MoH to improve outcomes related to nutrition during pregnancy.

Pneumonia is the largest global infectious killer of children under 5 years, and mostly affects poor rural children in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) with no access to care except visits by community health workers (CHWs). A CHW detects pneumonia with an inaccurate set of physical findings that misses many cases while adding to global antibiotic resistance. We have developed a novel pneumonia diagnosis and treatment algorithm with innovative point-of-care tests to be used by CHWs.

Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV is preventable where health services are available and accessible. In the post conflict areas of Bakassi, 77% of pregnant women (PW) do not attend antenatal clinics thus increasing the risk of MTCT. This Bold Idea approaches this problem with a package of care delivered by low-literate community women ("android mamas") from pregnancy, delivery to breastfeeding. This project aims to expedite health seeking habits among low-literate women and their families in rural areas by combining a novel approach to audio visual learning.

Placing an endotracheal tube (ETT) is an essential part of respiratory support for newborns who are unable to breathe. Unfortunately, placing the ETT into the esophagus (swallowing tube) instead of the airway occurs commonly, and current methods to detect this error are notoriously unreliable and slow, depriving the brains of these fragile newborns of oxygen long enough to cause permanent damage. Portable ultrasound of the neck has recently emerged as a powerful improvement for detecting esophageal ETTs.