WinSenga Update/Bulletin 43.0

Excerpt from article on maternal health on Humanosphere:

By Amy VanderZanden 

Maternal mortality is a popular subject in global health, but what about the many women who suffer disability as a result of pregnancy and childbirth?

While pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period are not remotely easy for women in the United States, compared to some parts of the world, it could be considered a fairly straightforward life event.

Maternal morbidity includes side effects like diabetes and excessive weight gain, but also such potentially life-threatening issues as sepsis, eclampsia, maternal hypertension, hemorrhage, uterine prolapse, infertility or any other of a long list of health outcomes. Maternal morbidity can be physical or psychological, and can result from direct or indirect causes which can have a lifetime impact on a woman’s health.

Uterine prolapse, for example, is most commonly caused by difficulty at childbirth. It can have drastic effects on a woman’s quality of life, impacting her ability to sit or walk; it can lead to back and abdominal pain, and make going to the bathroom difficult. Without surgery, prolapse can be permanently disabling.

Despite the fact that the majority of women globally have finished bearing children by the age of 45 or 49, the snapshot from the data visualization tool below shows that women can continue to suffer health problems from their childbearing years for the rest of their lives.

Read more here

 

WinSenga Update/Bulletin 42.0

A while back, we received an email from an organization in the maternal-newborn health space about potential collaboration. It appears that the policies in Kenya and political will are heading in the right direction with the cause being championed by the First Lady!

Excerpt from an article on Huffington Post:

Kenya is amongst the 10 most dangerous countries for pregnant women. Between 6000 and 8000 women die every year during childbirth; the current maternal mortality rate is 488 deaths per 100,000 live births. Kenya has made little progress in reducing this to achieve the commitment set in the Millennium Development Goals of 147 deaths per 100,000.

However, thanks to the introduction of free maternity services for women by the Government of Kenya in 2013, Kenya’s dire maternal death rate may finally begin to fall.

The First Lady of Kenya, Margaret Kenyatta, has emerged as a true champion in this cause. Her drive and resolve has put the spotlight on Kenya’s efforts to reverse this tragic trend. In January 2014 she spearheaded the Beyond Zero Campaign to raise awareness about the link between good health and a strong nation, specifically demonstrating the importance of maternal, newborn and children’s health. As part of the campaign, she ran both a half and full marathon to galvanize support and mobilize resources. And her clarion call, “no woman should die giving life” has resonated across the country and globally, now even transformed by a Kenyan band into a theme song, titled, It Has to be Now.

For this innovative work, Mrs. Kenyatta was voted by the United Nations (UN) in Kenya as the UN person of the year in 2014, a well-deserved recognition for which I congratulate her. It is remarkable that she has used her position as the First Lady of Kenya to tackle a critical human development issue and has demonstrated extraordinary initiative, integrity and courage to save the lives of women and children.

I had the honor of meeting with the First Lady of Kenya in September to discuss a University of California, San Francisco initiative to address pre-term births. I was struck by her knowledge about the current situation and determination to improve maternal, newborn and child health in Kenya.

See full article here

WinSenga Update/Bulletin 41.0

Some worthy downloads on maternal health:

1. Trends in Maternal Mortality – 1990 to 2013 Exec summary – Trends in Maternal Mortality – 1990 to 2013

2. Why mothers continue to die/Maternal mortality infographics maternal-mortality-infographic_part2

WinSenga Update/Bulletin 40.0

Here are some cool infographics on maternal health:

Credits: Because I am Girl – http://becauseiamagirl.ca

Credits: Plan Canada – https://plancanada.ca

 

WinSenga Update/Bulletin 39.0

The struggle to reduce maternal mortality has registered some great strides. Although these strides are commendable, a lot remains to be done.

Here’s an infographic from USAID that summarizes the issue succinctly.

Credits: USAID

 

WinSenga Update/Bulletin 38.0

We completed WinSenga eFHR version 2.1 a short while back. We’ll be sharing a link to the app on the Windows Phone store in the coming weeks so you can check it out and help us improve the user experience through your feedback.

Lesson from WinSenga version 2.0: Refocus.

We listened to the feedback from our medical team and users to refocus. And we’ve done just that and stripped the app into smaller, more focused apps: WinSenga eFHR (an ultrasound on a mobile phone that can diagnose, alert, suggest courses of action, and make referrals), WinSenga ANC (an automated ‘clerking’ tool for midwives complete with diagnosis help, alerts, recommendations and referral help) and PregCalc (a pregnancy tracker and information guide that will also come to mothers without ‘smart’ phones via free SMS). – Joshua Okello, Lead Developer with WinSenga, Co-Founder & Business Development Lead at Cipher256

WinSenga eFHR v2.1 teaser in pics: With this new design, we’ve gone minimalist and focused on getting the user to productivity quickly.

As always, we still have easy -to-understand suggestions, now delivered via a pivot together with a summary of the results.

And you can send the results to the mother or continue to work on the next mother. We know this can be confusing at first. No worries. We’ve put all you need to know in a one-pager to make you a superhero. 🙂
Lastly, you can push all this quickly to the cloud via your OneDrive.

 

WINSENGA UPDATE/BULLETIN 37.0 – Ugandans Get Women Organisation Awards

excerpts from allafrica.com

As Uganda celebrated the International Women’s day at the weekend, three Ugandans were listed for awards by Women Deliver, a global advocacy organisation.

Women Deliver, advocates improved health and well-being of girls and women. Martin Wanzala, from Allied Youth Initiative; Nargis Shirazi (Woman to Woman Foundation) and Humphrey Nabimanya (Reach a Hand Uganda) will each receive $5,000 to promote girls’ and women’s health and rights in their communities.

This C-Exchange seed grant is part of a $50,000 Women Deliver grant to Young Advocates in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

“We know that if we want to advance girls’ and women’s health globally, we cannot act alone,” said Saundra Pelletier, CEO of WomanCare Global. “Collaboration is critical and Women Deliver helps forge partnerships for girls and women everywhere.”

The programme was launched at the Women Deliver 2013 conference in Malaysia to create new opportunities to engage and empower youth.

“Young people have fresh, new ideas to overcome maternal and reproductive health challenges in their communities, but they do not always have the means to transform proposals into projects,” said Joy Marini, executive director of Corporate Contributions at Johnson & Johnson.

The selected projects will help increase access to youth-friendly services and information in Uganda and end child marriage in rural Zimbabwe.

Women’s day?

Women in Uganda have come a long way, and some people take March 8 as no more than another excuse to party.

A look at the recommendations in the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women shows the progress. The UN calls on member states to increase women’s leadership and participation in national governance, end violence against women, engage women in all aspects of peace and security processes, enhance womenís economic empowerment and make gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting.

Today, the number of girls graduating from university has increased significantly, with female graduands sometimes outnumbering the males. Uganda was the first African country to have a female vice president in Specioza Wandira, and now has a female speaker of Parliament in Rebecca Kadaga.

Uganda
Team Tanzania Off to Kampala By Bus for Africa Cross Country
TANZANIA athletes are set to depart on Thursday afternoon by bus to Kampala, Uganda ready for the Africa Cross Country … see more at http://allafrica.com/stories/201403121264.html

WINSENGA UPDATE/BULLETIN 36.0 – Rotarians in maternal health walk to save a life

Excerpts from http://www.busiweek.com/

KAMPALA, Uganda – Ugandan Rotarians last week walked to save lives of mothers during child delivery. The charity walk that took place at the Ssese Islands was flagged off by the State Minister for Health, Sarah Opendi.

About 70 percent of mothers living in remote communities like Ssese Islands do not receive maternal health.

Most mothers give birth at home and risk losing their lives and babies. Some develop complications such as obstructed pregnancies which require a caesarian section operation, while some bleed to death.

It is for these reasons that Rotary Uganda organized a Charity walk dubbed “Walk for Maternal Health to Save a Life.” The objective of the charity walk was to raise funds towards availing medical services to mothers. Rotary is an international organization composed of professionals, business persons and community leaders united to serve the disadvantaged.

During the charity walk, medical services were offered to about 300 residents of Bugala one in Ssese Islands. Services ranged from antenatal care, cervical and breast cancer screening, family planning services including the distribution of contraceptives, HIV/AIDS counseling and testing, sexual reproductive health education, distribution of mosquito nets to expectant mothers and children and the distribution of delivery kits.

Dr. Jacinto Amandua, Commissioner, Clinical Services in the Ministry of Health said the health facilities in Bugala are improving and appropriate medical services are being given to mothers. He said the health center in Bugala is fully equipped to perform caesarian section operations. However he noted that the Island needs mobile health services to enable doctors reach patients in their communities.

The Minister, Opendi said, “The Government is going to avail motorized ambulances to major health centers to ensure all Ugandans access basic medical services. I would like to thank Rotary for funding our immunization program.”

She expressed her gratitude and said: “The vaccines are now available in all health centers and immunization of children against polio, measles and other diseases is going on throughout the country.” She appealed to medical personnel to offer quality and timely services to Ugandans.

Rotary club believes health is a human right, and is wholeheartedly engaged in funding and providing health services to save the lives of mothers and their babies in Uganda. Rotary club works with service providers across the country.

Annually Rotary club holds fundraising drives and receives contributions from businesses and the public towards securing maternal health for disadvantaged mothers and children. Proceeds from such fundraising events are used to build and/or equip several health facilities in Uganda. For instance, a health facility was built in Abur Village in Tororo district to serve over 3,000 people in that community.

read more from http://www.busiweek.com/index1.php?Ctp=2&pI=687&pLv=3&srI=75&spI=116&cI=10

winsenga.org
cipher256.com

WINSENGA UPDATE/BULLETIN 35.0 –Rotary, Aga Khan University announce their first graduating class in scholarship program in East Africa

Excerpts from Africa Science News

With more than 50 percent of women in the developing world delivering babies without the assistance of skilled health personnel, Rotary, a global humanitarian service organization; and Aga Khan University (AKU), a private non-denominational university; are together increasing access to trained health professionals for mothers and infants in East Africa.

The first class of 24 Rotary-sponsored scholars will graduate this month from AKU’s campuses in East Africa, in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda with Bachelor of Science degrees in Nursing, or Diplomas in General Nursing.
“In rural Kenya, having a nurse or midwife present during childbirth can mean the difference between life and death,” said Geeta Manek Rotary member from Nairobi. “This class of highly trained nurses will help ensure that mothers and their infants receive the best health care possible.”

Read more at http://africasciencenews.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1103:rotary-aga-khan-university-announce-their-first-graduating-class-in-scholarship-program-in-east-africa&catid=63:health&Itemid=114

WINSENGA UPDATE/BULLETIN 34.0 – Winsenga App Video

We shot this video a few weeks ago so that you could better understand our cause.