MamaAfya

Obstetric fistula(OF) is a pregnancy-related complication caused by prolonged obstructed labor and leads to lifelong incontinence. Women who suffer from OF are highly stigmatized by society. Each year, up to 100,000 women worldwide develop Obstetric Fistula, mostly In developing countries(http://www.who.int/features/fa...). Sadly, the Current capacity can manage less than half of the cases(http://www.fistulafoundation.o...), and often, women with obstetric fistula tend to delay treatments due to; Lack of knowledge on fistula, Self-isolation and community isolation, traditional and cultural practices,
Distance to health facilities, and Costs incurred seeking treatments. According to UNFPA, fistula is most common in rural areas-as women with obstructed labor can spend 2.5 days walking to health clinics. Prevalence is highest in impoverished communities in Africa and Asia and particularly where the poorest, most vulnerable, and marginalized women and girls give birth at home.

We are designing a new organization to identify and connect patients needing this corrective intervention to existing treatment centers, who otherwise would not be treated, using NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, Mobile money services, Interactive Voice Response(IVR), and Awareness campaigns. 

Our innovation/platform features; A mobile application for healthcare providers replaces paper-based tracking, provides prioritized due lists and high-risk lists, automates timely reporting of health outcomes and resource shortages, automates direct benefit transfers, and guides clinical decision-making. Instant, offline sharing of digital medical records, via a Near Field Communication(NFC) health care, at the point of care. GPS, NFC, and biometric accountability at all points of care. This confirms that the 1) health worker interfaces with the intended beneficiary and 2)the patient has reached for follow-up appointments. Community engagement through dialect-specific automated voice calls sent as health center reminders and health awareness messages, Cultural Integration, our solution is being co-designed with the community and health workers employing human-centered design and cultural sensitivity along the way- dealing with cultural, social, and behavioral constraints. Actionable analytics for timely decision-making. Our extensive data sets enable us to build AI models to predict health worker diligence and filter high-quality data to predict adverse obstetric and mother's health outcomes. 

we organize awareness campaigns that provide patients with numbers to contact our trained community leads/medical staff for in-person visits and check-ups; When a woman is identified with any of these conditions, she is provided with a MamaAfya NFC health card carrying health records and biometric data synced into our cloud database. 

Even when the actual treatment is free or subsidized, patients must still usually pay for transportation for their treatment and follow-ups appointment, to remove barriers to transport, we use M-pesa a mobile money system to send the cost of transport to patients or their caregivers via a network of trained ambassadors and help them reach the facility for their treatments, making fistula more accessible for all Tanzanian women. Through our cost-effective and user-friendly intervention, we can identify and connect patients to cost-effective treatments. Also, our technology doesn't need an Internet connection, this means we can impact and reach every woman even those in the last mile and those in the lower segment of the population. Using a GIS mapping system, we can visualize areas where the greatest needs are clustered, raising the visibility of local needs such as timely access to obstetric care and other preventions.

The United Nations Population Fund has estimated that there are approximately 3000 new obstetric fistula cases in Tanzania. Our target beneficiaries are women from inaccessible villages who do not have access to banking facilities. As most of the fistula cases occur in countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia with poorly-resourced health systems, we want to be able to tap into these populations and make sure we reach them by 2025, reach 1 million young women who still live with untreated obstetric fistula in Asia and whole Africa, and be able to reduce and eventually end fistula in Africa by 2030. our target beneficiaries are women and girls who still live with untreated fistula in remote and inaccessible areas of sub-Saharan Africa living under $2 a day.  

By using M-pesa to send the cost of transport to patients we are breaking barriers to transportation and helping them get access to affordable basic healthcare and also get access to reach the facility for their treatments, making fistula more accessible for all Tanzanian women. Through our cost-effective and user-friendly intervention, we can identify and connect patients to cost-effective treatments, decreasing the lifetime disability burden from 8.53 DALYs to 1.51 DALYs.

We try to get the best people we could ever get on our team, our people are highly motivated and passionate about supporting all women to achieve their individual goals and live healthy, independent, and full lives. And we try to focus and do very few things well and better. But we also try to co-design our solution with the community and health workers employing human-centered design and cultural sensitivity along the way- dealing with cultural, social, and behavioral constraints.

I'm applying for this challenge to be able to tap into the network of experts and world-renowned innovators for technical support and advice. we also would like to get this chance for a place to get financial support for our solution, the funding will enable us to build our team, and add new roles and people to our team this challenge will give us the right platform to test our business model to know exactly what works best for us and what does not work to improve upon so that we can grow sustainably as a business, it will also enable us to produce a rigorous amount of evidence that this is possible and other recognition for future grant applications

Fistula patients are difficult to identify, as they are often shunned by their community, so, we organize awareness campaigns that provide patients with numbers to contact our trained community leads/medical staff for in-person visits and check-ups; When a woman is identified with any of these conditions, she is provided with a MamaAfya NFC health card carrying health records and biometric data synced into our cloud database. And even when the actual treatment is free or subsidized, patients must still usually pay for transportation for their treatment and follow-ups appointment, to remove barriers to transport, we use M-pesa a mobile money system to send the cost of transport to patients or their caregivers via a network of trained ambassadors and help them reach the facility for their treatments, making fistula more accessible for all Tanzanian women.

Through our cost-effective and user-friendly intervention, we can identify and connects patients to cost-effective treatments. Also, our technology doesn't need an Internet connection, this means we can impact and
reach every woman even those in the last mile and those in the lower segment of the population. using a GIS mapping system we can visualize areas where the greatest needs are clustered, raising the visibility of local needs such as timely access to obstetric care and other interventions.

MamaAfya aims to empower people with disabilities and their families to improve their quality of life and ensure access to medical and rehabilitative treatment. Committed to preventing disabilities and eventually ending them wherever possible. We plan to scale up and increase our intervention impacts;

• 250 patients to be supported to access treatment during the pilot.
•  1500 people reached by the end of the 1-year phase
• Establish a partnership withCCBRT (Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation) in Tanzania for treatments/clinic referrals during the pilot
• Form a new partnership with Vodacom Foundations, this will give us access to 1.3 million users registered to the Healthy Baby platform (locally known as Wazazi Nipendeni) will help in fistula awareness campaigns and send educational resources to mothers and girls in Tanzania about fistula. 

And as we grow as a team we hope to partner and hope our solution to be picked up by the Tanzania government, a sub-government agency such as the Ministry of Health(MOH), or organizations UNDP, and Comprehensive Community-Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania(CCBRT); is the largest provider of fistula treatments and corrective surgeries in the country. In the next few years, we are planning to launch more pilots on the continent in countries like Uganda, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Kenya, to showcase to the government that this is possible because until now the conversation was more about reducing fistula. Instead, we are saying "Let end Fistula”.

we assess impacts progress through three domains;

1. the overall quality of life before and after repair, 
2. fertility and pregnancy outcomes after repair, having positive outcomes such as improvements in quality of life at the individual levels including feeling of freedom, confidence, and personal growth and
3. Interpersonal quality of life including improved relationships with family and friends, reduced stigma, and increased participation in their communities.

we also measure our progress though 

• The number of facilities/outlets involved
• The number of personnel employed in 1 year.
• The number of clients and patients reached at the end of 2 years phase.

our solution uses NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, Mobile money services, Interactive Voice Response(IVR), and Awareness campaigns. Our innovation/platform features;

A mobile application for healthcare providers, which replaces paper-based tracking, provides prioritized due lists and high-risk lists, automates timely reporting of health outcomes and resource shortages, automates direct benefit transfers, and guides clinical decision-making. Instant, offline sharing of digital medical records, via a Near Field Communication(NFC) health card, at the point of care. GPS, NFC, and biometric accountability at all points of care. This confirms that 1)treatments were provided at the facility and 2)the patient has reached the facility for follow-up appointments. Community engagement through
dialect-specific automated voice calls sent as reminders and health awareness messages, Cultural Integration, our solution is being co-designed with the community and health workers employing
human-centered design and cultural sensitivity along the way- dealing with cultural, social, and behavioral constraints.

We try to hire the best people we could ever get on our team, our people are highly motivated and passionate about supporting all women to achieve their individual goals and live healthy, independent, and full lives. And we try to focus and do very few things well and better. We hold ourselves accountable for improving Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity, and make sure we make DE&I our new way of conducting business we do this by being allies for change both in our company and in our communities and by being transparent about our plans and progress. but we also have female team members with executive roles and titles in our solution making it a more inclusive and equitable place to work.