In October Laetitia went to Congo-Kinshasa with her long-time friend Angélique Mayele to attend the opening of a mother-child health centre Angélique set up in Itere Mbeng, in the province of Kwilu. SAHFA gave a helping hand to finish it.
There we held public debates with the population, at inauguration day in the presence of the authorities, on maternal and infant mortality. The population spoke out forcefully. Women are fed up with their fertility causing anguish, mourning and additional debt, due to a high rate of caesarean sections (10 times more expensive). They want this to change, they want to understand why even without surgery, giving birth in a health centre often becomes more expensive than the advertised price. They demand to understand why it often turns out so badly, with death and disability for either or both. In the presence of their men and authorities who show their support, the women ask us to bring them into digital modernity to understand the whole process: from conception to pregnancy to childbirth. How to manage their health during pregnancy, how to choose the right products, services and foods at the right time.
In Congo SAHFA will target the introduction of JamboMama! in Kwilu from the newly Mother and Child Health Centre. Because of its extreme isolation and neglect, paving the road towards its use will be long for this site. Therefore, we will first introduce the app at two other locations, Uvira and Kolwezi.
We have a great JamboMama! ambassador in Uvira, in a mother-child center managed by a coordinator who is an obstetrician and determined to introduce the app into their health area. In Kolwezi the team is led by Dr Kabongo who has advised us for several years on medical content for our app.
We’re going to need a lot of money to do it all, but we don’t need a lot of money all at once. Just a steady monthly income to go slowly but surely, together, one site learning from the other.
‘If SAHFA succeeds in Kwilu, you will save our lives’, we have been told. ‘The lives of our women, but also our collective life, because this is an abandoned place.’
If you want to support us, you can make a donation using the following account information:
SAHFA – Smart Access to Health for All
Account holder: SAHFA ASBL
IBAN: FR76 1680 7000 5432 5849 8921 907
SWIFT code: CCBPFRPPGRE