By Marc Sklar MD, MPH | Executive Director Brick by Brick Partners
Founded by Dr. Peter Klatsky, Mama Rescue is a mobile-phone platform providing transport for laboring mothers in rural areas; and transport vouchers enabling women to be transported to deliver in health centers, received after attending four antenatal care appointments. By coordinating transport from home to health center, logistics, and communication between facilities, Mama Rescue aims to reduce delays associated with childbirth, thereby mitigating risks related to maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity, and increasing mothers’ and midwives’ confidence in the health system. Since Mama Rescue uses simple technology and locally available infrastructure (simple phones, local transport, and mobile money), it is readily adaptable and scalable to other regions, countries, communities, and public-health problems.
Our plan is to scale this successful program model. Mama Rescue has been piloted and operated effectively since March 2015, serving 14 health centers and 2 referral hospitals in Kasese District of Uganda, and has been received very well by the community. As of January 2018, Mama Rescue has provided 3,458 transports from home to health center, and 2,765 emergency-referral transports from health center to hospital. The service has resulted in an increase in ANC 4 attendance, and decreased the rate of fresh stillbirths by 33% during its first year.
Beginning in January of 2019, Brick by Brick Uganda has been engaged in planning meetings with two key private telecommunications partners: MTN, the largest mobile phone company in sub-Saharan Africa, and Yo Uganda, a local tech company, who were key contributors to the development of our mobile phone technology. Over the next few months we will finalize our contracts/MOUs with these critical partners. In addition, we have begun disucssions with local district government health departments to ensure their full engagement and support for this project. Finally, we have begun to identify local taxi driver associations, as well as Village Saving and Loan Associations, who will play a vital part in Mama Rescue implementation.
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