Saving Mothers' Lives in Rural Tanzania

VSI recently completed its comprehensive assessment of misoprostol availability in Tanzania. This simple, life-saving medicine holds the potential to save the lives of thousands of women, especially those living in rural and remote communities – if only the medicine is available to them. During this assessment,...

Eustela is the head nurse of St. Francis hospital in rural Kilombero, Tanzania. She stands proudly against the blue clinic walls and sends a wide smile into the camera as she delivers the following message to VSI and our supporters: “On behalf of the mothers of this village and all parts of Kilombero, we very much...

In Tanzania, we are working diligently to improve women’s access to misoprostol for a healthier pregnancy and childbirth. As reported last time, we are in the midst of an in-depth series of assessments that are evaluating access to the essential medicine, misoprostol. Our latest results focus on the women themselves....

On March 8th VSI celebrated International Women’s Day. We take this day each year to celebrate the women in our programs – the women we serve and the women that serve others. This year as a global community we recognized how far we have already come in improving the lives of women around the world, and yet there...

As the year comes to a close, Team VSI is busy wrapping up the year-end activities and reflecting on the progress and impact of our work in 2011. In the final quarter of 2011, VSI built upon its previous training efforts and trained 392 providers in Zanzibar to use life-saving misoprostol tablets. Since our project’s...

The VSI-Tanzania program received an extra dose of encouragement this summer when President Jakaya Kikwete announced commitment at the highest level to improving maternal health countrywide.  At the launch of a campaign focused on ensuring access to more comprehensive maternal health services and essential medical...

On Wednesday, June 15th, every donation made to this project will be matched by Global Giving by 30%.  Don’t miss this opportunity to make a difference to mothers in Tanzania.  Every 90 seconds a mother dies during pregnancy or childbirth, and 99% of these deaths take place in developing countries where lack...

Sharing Project Results Boosts Commitment to Save Lives Last month in Tanzania we hosted several meetings with policy makers, health care providers, and women to share the results of our collaborative project with the local Ifakara Health Institute and the Bixby Center at UC Berkeley introducing distribution of misoprostol...

This Wednesday, March 16th, Global Giving is matching all online donations at 30%. Here are ten reasons why you should consider supporting our project, “Saving Mother’s Lives in Rural Tanzania”: Investing in a mother’s health is an investment in her children, family and community. In Tanzania,...

Celebrating International Women's Day This Tuesday, March 8th, we join the world in celebrating 100 years of International Women's Day. As an organization committed to improving maternal health in communities most in need, we take notice of this special milestone and acknowledge the countless contributions women make to...

In Tanzania and in 13 other developing countries, VSI is working to ensure frontline health workers are equipped and trained on the use and benefits of misoprostol tablets for the management of postpartum hemorrhaging – the leading cause of maternal death.   The response to our efforts in reaching women who...

Women who reside in rural areas in Africa are not privy to western conveniences like a health clinic, a doctor or nurse, or even electricity.  Many mothers deliver their babies at home with the help of a family member or midwife.  But the risk of complications, specifically hemorrhaging which is the leading cause...

This summer at the 2010 Women Deliver Conference held in Washington, DC, VSI was honored to receive recognition from the First Lady of Zanzibar for our safe motherhood program on the islands of Zanzibar that form part of Tanzania. During the three-day conference which united over 3,000 policymakers, women’s advocates and...

We are pleased to report encouraging preliminary results from our collaborative and innovative program introducing distribution of misoprostol tablets to women when they come for prenatal care in Tanzania. The project is designed to equip expectant mothers with the tablets to safeguard against bleeding in case they cannot...

To help make safe delivery a reality for the women of Tanzania, with our local partners we continue to educate health care providers on how to use misoprostol tablets to manage excessive bleeding after childbirth, or postpartum hemorrhage. By training those who attend deliveries, we are helping to ensure that mothers have...

We have encouraging news about our project distributing misoprostol tablets to pregnant women at antenatal care (ANC) visits in Tanzania. Since the project began in January 2009, nearly 4,000 expectant mothers have received misoprostol tablets to prevent excessive bleeding after childbirth, or postpartum hemorrhage (PPH). ...

We have promising developments to report about our innovative project distributing misoprostol tablets to women during antenatal care (ANC) visits. Since the project launch in January 2009, we have worked quickly with partners at the local Ifakara Research Institute to train 282 health care providers and more than 350...

This month, we launched our project to distribute misoprostol tablets during antenatal care. The goal of this project is to save mothers’ lives by preventing postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) at home births with misoprostol tablets for women who are unable to reach a facility to deliver. We will be providing misoprostol at...

In Tanzania there is near universal attendance for at least one antenatal care visit (96%), yet the majority of births still take place at home. Antenatal care visits may prove to be a key contact point to reach vulnerable women with safe birthing messages and misoprostol for prevention. With partners at the local Ifakara...

This past summer we completed an evaluation of the long-term use of misoprostol for treatment of PPH at the community-level. Overall, misoprostol acceptance is very high among women surveyed in both intervention villages (where misoprostol has been in use by TBAs) and control villages where TBAs do not have misoprostol to...

The Tanzanian Food and Drug Authority officially announced September 27, 2007 it has approved the registration of misoprostol for controlling postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), the life-threatening bleeding after childbirth attributed to the loss of approximately 5,250 mother's lives annually in Tanzania. For over a year and...

Over the past year, Venture Strategies has been steadily working with the Tanzanian government towards registering the drug misoprostol to control postpartum hemorrhage (PPH). Since our Medical Director's groundbreaking operations research demonstrating misoprostol is safe to use at home births in Tanzania, and substantial...

In May 2006, a group of technical officials from the Ministry of Health and regulatory agency met in Tanzania's capitol city in a closed-door session to discuss potential additions to the country’s essential drug list. The essential drug list is comprised of medicines considered so important to the population that they...