Educational Program

Every year in Pakistan, half of 8 million pregnancies are unintended; 25% (2.2 million) end in induced abortion. Midwives with limited training perform half the abortions. Quality Post-Abortion Care (PAC) is lacking. 700,000 women experience complications contributing 12% of maternal deaths. Midwives need improved knowledge and skills to improve access to family planning, safe abortion and improved PAC, which in turn will improve lives of women and decrease demands on the health system.

Health facilities at county level in Uganda provide care to majority of Ugandan newborns because of their easy accessibility yet they have no specialized health workers such as pediatricians. This has kept neonatal mortality high. We developed PRISMS an SMS based remote decision support system that uses routine newborn assessment findings to provide suggestions for appropriate comprehensive management for sick newborns at the level of a specialist based on a clinically validated algorithm.

Preeclampsia and eclampsia are the second leading cause of maternal mortalities worldwide,complication that can result in serious or fatal complications for both mother and unborn child. Early symptoms are subtle,so women are often unaware of their complication unless they receive routine prenatal care or their condition develops into eclampsia. In Uganda , most women do not have access to routine prenatal care and are unable to seek medical care before the complication becomes detrimental

Develop a portable electronic partograph (e-partograph) based at a PHC centre synchronised with a hospital-based monitor. The e-partograph will be plotted to monitor foetal heart rate, cervical dilation, descent of the presenting part, contractions and blood pressure. Deviant trends will be flagged with an alarm system with a link to algorithms for alternative actions accessible to the health worker.

Haiti is a dangerous place to be pregnant. The risk of dying in childbirth is 1 in 80 and less than 25% of pregnant women delivery their babies in a health facility. Women face significant barriers to safe pregnancy and delivery, and babies are at risk for malnutrition and disease. These barriers are often due to a lack of access to care, but are also behavioral.

Bangladesh is one of the top ten countries with high adolescent pregnancy in the world. The median age of first birth is 18.2 to 19.4 yrs in urban Bangladesh. The poor urban people, especially young mothers have little access to government health facilities. Provision of health services and health education to this population is a great challenge because of supply and demand barriers in the urban health system, which is considered patchy and fragmented.

This innovation helps to improve mental health literacy, functioning and increase the accessibility of mental health treatment by establishing schools as hubs of mental health knowledge and support for youth. Teachers from participating schools are trained to deliver a mental health literacy curriculum (MHLC) that addresses topics including mental disorders and addictions, stigma, stress, coping, problem-solving, help-seeking and mental wellness. The intervention teachers are also trained to teach other teachers the same skillset.

Scale-up and evaluation of the Family Networks (FaNS) program for children with developmental disorders

This programme aims to study the impact on Child development parameters at 2 years of age through integrated intervention that will blend the nutrition intervention with parenting program and developing and promoting a social business plan. We will develop 1) ‘A Food Basket’ for pregnant women to ensure nutritional needs during pregnancy and 2) a parenting program aimed at enhancing knowledge and skills of caregiver for positive parenting. Intervention will be managed in close collaboration , support from the departments of public health and women and child development in Government.

The Mama Ambassador Program (MAP) is an initiative of Brick by Brick Uganda’s Babies and Mothers Alive (BAMA) Program to improve support for the 2,000 adolescent mothers each year in Uganda’s Rakai and Kyotera Districts. Through use of the BAMA Program’s existing community midwives and model mothers, Mama Ambassadors, the project will specifically identify, track, and provide both institutional and monthly peer-group support for adolescent mothers at Rakai Hospital to improve their well-being and stimulate their infants’ early brain development.