Anike Foundation Works with Rwenzori Rural Health Services to Improve Maternal Health in Uganda
Anike Foundation recently helped Rwenzori Rural Health Services (RRHS) secure 125 Mama Kits to support their maternal health program. These Mama Kits include essential items to ensure women have a safe delivery and a healthy start for their newborns.
According to the World Health Organization, over 800 women die daily from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Ninety-nine percent of these deaths occur in developing countries. Preventable maternal mortality is unacceptable.
Who is Rwenzori Rural Health Services (RRHS)?
RRHS is a community-based organization founded in 2005 to improve rural health services in the Kasese District in Uganda. RRHS’s broad objectives are:
1. Promoting rural health and sanitation
2. Participating in development issues as planned by the local government and development partners
3. Community capacity building on climate change adaptation strategies.
RRHS also focuses on health outreach to the community in areas such as hygiene, nutrition, water safety, family planning, HIV prevention, and pre- and post-natal care.
In 2014, RRHS, with help from partners FCDE-USA and Majid Jarid USA, created a Domiciliary Health Care Clinic to supplement government efforts in improving maternal health care in Kabughabugha Village. Since then, RRHS has kept the Domiciliary Health Care Clinic registered with the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council in Kampala. However, many rural women still prefer to deliver babies at home with the assistance of traditional birth attendants. The conditions and tools used in home deliveries are often primitive and not always sanitary, risking the life of both the mother and baby. Complications that occur during and following
childbirth contribute to maternal and infant deaths. Most of these complications are preventable and treatable if women have skilled care during delivery.
What is the Mama Kit Project?
The Mama Kit project launched on 6th June 2022 with the distribution of 125 Mama Kits to pregnant women. Procured with funds from Anike Foundation, the Mama Kits included all the essential items needed to safely deliver a baby, including a sterile razor blade, soap, gloves, gauze, cord clamp, and plastic sheeting. The kits also included a supply of soybeans for nutritional support for the mothers and informational flyers about nutrition and care for post-delivery mothers and their newborns.
Concurrently, RRHS invited professional midwives to educate community members on the value of safe deliveries. The midwives demonstrated the dangers of delivering babies in poor hygienic conditions and described the conditions and tools needed for a safe delivery. Young mothers then presented songs supporting the professional midwives’ promotion of clean deliveries.
With local resources, RRHS secured one midwife and one nurse to sustain the Domiciliary Health Care Clinic. RRHS is also working with Rwenzori School of Nursing & Midwifery (RSONAMKA) to give students the opportunity to gain experience in the health clinic as part of their studies.
Summary
Information, education, and communication provided to women during prenatal care in and around Kabughabugha Village are currently inadequate. Pregnant women do not have the resources to make healthy choices for their pregnancies, and this lack of knowledge leads to increased maternal mortality rates. RRHS needs help to supplement our efforts in increasing prenatal care.
Thanks to Anike Foundation and the hard work of RRHS, many women in Kabughabugha Village have newfound knowledge of the dangers of delivering a baby under poor hygienic conditions. But more help is needed. Please consider supplementing RRHS’s effort to increase prenatal care by clicking the “Donate” button at the bottom of this page.
A video documenting this project is available at the following link: https://youtu.be/e4m3GVWF-II.