Saving lives in Senegal through Hope

The RapidSMS program provides mobile phones to connect pregnant women, community health workers (CHWs), ambulances, and hospitals. CHWs enter data into phones to track all pregnant women, monitor prenatal care, and identify women at risk of complications. The free platform also allows pregnant women to send a text message to their CHW, who can alert an ambulance to be dispatched to even the most remote regions and give hospitals advanced notice of the women’s arrival. The system has been so effective in improving health outcomes that the government is looking to use it for other medical issues like malaria.

Access to medical resources improves the effectiveness of health centers. In the village of Fuka, in Nigeria’s Niger State, NGOs such as the RAiSE Foundation and TY Danjuma Foundation have stepped in to support the local Primary Health Centre (PHC). Multiple initiatives, including home visits and the distribution of mosquito nets, have built relationships with the community; the most successful aspects have been the Mama Kit, given free of charge to pregnant women at the PHC, and the donation of an emergency ambulatory tricycle.

A program in Sokoto State uses 300 ambulances to improve access to emergency care in rural areas, which has significantly improved maternal health outcomes. High costs, limited availability of transportation, and traditional gender norms limited women’s access to care, but the program has made it easier to reach care, and more interactions with health facilities helped shift norms about maternal care. Routine immunizations, prenatal care, and nutrition services have also increased. Committees, made up of local leaders and healthcare officials, maintain the vehicles and provide drivers in each ward.

David Gordon Memorial Hospital, owned and run by the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian Synod of Livingstonia, bought two ambulances to transport pregnant women to health clinics for free. Malawi has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world and women living in rural areas must travel long distances at great expense to reach well-equipped care. Since 2017, the seven-seat ambulance speedboat has ferried 861 pregnant women and a road ambulance has transported 1,000 women to the hospital. Nonprofits help support the ambulances’ operating costs, which can be high, especially the speedboat.

After deducing that preeclampsia was "the number one cause of maternal hospital readmissions and maternal mortality," doctors at Penn Medical began sending new mothers home with a blood pressure cuff and then texting them for readings. Proving to be a successful intervention methodology, this practice has expanded to other hospitals in the state and may soon scale nationally.

DIY solutions can overcome the scarcity of medical resources in developing countries and save lives. A simple solution such as replacing expensive uterine balloons with more readily accessible condoms has already helped to give thousands of mothers access to a potentially life-saving medical procedure preventing postpartum hemorrhage. The transfer of this and other proven DIY solutions can help cut health-care costs in more affluent countries with low-cost innovations.

Jason Friesen, an American paramedic who had served in Haiti after the earthquake, realized that many poor communities in the Caribbean were lacking the equivalent of the United States’ 911 emergency medical services, and were facing increased death tolls as a consequence. Friesen realized he could help such communities set up emergency response systems through the use of volunteers and a simple text message exchange. Now, his organization Trek Medics simplifies and democratizes the emergency dispatch system, and, as a result, saves lives in rural communities.

The Healing Hurt People program, or HHP, is an ER-based violence intervention program that works on the public health-based notion that violence - like other diseases that spread - can be prevented. It targets services to those at highest risk, patients like those in Philadelphia, who are being treated for violent injuries in the city's emergency rooms. Unlike other programs, it recognizes and attempts to heal the underlying emotional trauma that results from, and often predates, violent injury.

Expectant mothers encounter numerous hurdles during pregnancy and childbirth. A pilot project in Mumbai called mMitra sends weekly voice messages to new and expecting mothers, providing critical information and advice on how to maintain their own health and that of their child. Hundreds of women have registered for the program, helping not only to increase the number of healthy pregnancies and births, but creating indirect impacts such as eliminating taboos against morning sickness and raising awareness of the importance of women's health in general.

Through programs across the country, nurses, social workers, or trained mentors offer support to new or expectant parents, imparting skills to help them become better teachers for their children. Through regular home visits with the families, these programs are working to close an achievement gap between rich and poor children that starts as early as just nine months into a child's life.