We are happy to announce that the diocese of Bunda, in West Tanzania, is getting ready as we speak to start using the JamboMama! app in their hospital at Kibara as part of a district medical office driven programme to reduce maternal mortality: ‘Safe motherhood for Bunda women’.
The first challenge will be an awareness drive addressing the decision makers, medics and paramedics to ensure their full support for the app’s introduction, the groundwork for the systemic change it brings.
The women’s version of the app will then be put on smartphones of some twelve rural health workers. Up to six women can register on one smartphone, each with their own password. The rural health worker, a person chosen by the community, will help the women to use the app. Most women are digitally illiterate so the JamboMama! app also helps bring meaningful digital literacy to the poor and vulnerable. The hospital staff as well as the staff of the dispensaries from where difficult child birth cases are referred to Kibara hospital will learn to use the health workers’ app as well as that of the women, so that they can look with the women at their JamboMama! account when they come for an antenatal care consult.
The project will be locally coordinated by Ms Bernadetha Francis, secretary of the diocesan health department. She is a competent and experienced lady who also led the ten year long CDC (Centers for Disease Control, USA) funded programme for HIV/Aids control in the district.
As regards to customisation of the app, we shall re-enter a cooperation agreement according to needs we find when our Bunda pioneer users have given us feedback. During our mission in the area in June/July 2018, we have developed a draft user guide in English with our IT-partner Dure Technologies. The demo video will be updated, adding an explanation in spoken Swahili in accordance with Bunda user feedback.
We will soon be launching a new crowdfunding campaign to finance this project. We hope you will support us.