All kitted and ready to go

We are up and running. The Community Health Workers have their new bicycles and solar kits, and the data has started to flow. We cannot overstate their enthusiasm and work ethic which fuels our motivation as we fine-tune our processes.

   

Community Health Worker Workshop

We are now in full swing with field trials scheduled to commence next week. Ten community health workers (CHWs) or health agents (CHAs) as they were previously known have joined the group and they attended a refresher course in Ifakara last weekend. Many topics were reviewed including the integrated management of childhood illnesses. We also introduced the CHWs to a SMS-based antenatal care system and gave them a smartphone tutorial.

The technology is the easy part

Community health workers are the unsung heroes of depleted health system in a picturesque valley in Southern Tanzania called Kilombero. They are on the front-lines of a health system that has one medical doctor for every thirty thousand inhabitants yet they receive marginal to no recognition and very little to no pay.

Newborn babies account for close to a third of the fatalities that occur daily among children under the age of five in Tanzania. 130 babies die within 28 days of being born from mainly preventable causes. These are precisely the type of situations where community health workers can make a significant contribution since half of all births take place at home and mostly in unsanitary conditions. Health education and health facility referrals to expectant mothers can make the difference to newborn baby survival.

Electronic Afrika intends to provide innovative methods to health information delivery in rural Tanzania. We believe the answer lies in adapting communication technologies to the local context and environment. Tremendous gratitude goes out to Tigo Tanzania and Reach for Change for supporting our eAfya (eHealth) initiative with a $20'000 prize and social business training.