Mobilizing Maternal Health in Tanzania

Pathfinder International, in partnership with Touch Foundation, Vodafone Foundation, and USAID, aims to promote the accessibility of appropriate maternal and newborn care in Tanzania by expanding the availability of comprehensive emergency obstetric care and by implementing community level activities to reduce maternal mortality during delivery and childbirth. 

Community Intervention

In the first year of this project, Pathfinder worked to strengthen maternal health systems by linking community and regional efforts in obstetric and neonatal care in the Sengerema District, Mwanza Region and then expanding to the Shinyanga District, Shinyanga Region in year two. Pathfinder, with its long history of training community health workers, has undertaken significant work at the community level throughout the Lake Zone.

By strengthening community health systems, we are mobilizing and educating community members to address the delays leading to maternal morbidity and mortality. In addition to community level activities aimed at reducing maternal mortality during delivery and childbirth, Pathfinder and its partners are working to improve emergency obstetric care services as well as increase prevention and access to treatment for women with fistula.

Referrals

Pathfinder, Vodafone Foundation, and Touch Foundation have established an innovative referral and emergency transport system that extends from the community to first-level care facilities and then up to each regional hospital.

Community health workers, equipped with a mobile phone decision support application, and health facility staff are trained to ensure clients in need of transport for delivery receive the necessary care at the community level and are referred in a timely manner.

Local taxis are used as emergency transport, accessed by community health workers via a hotline and dispatched, controlled, and reimbursed via a ‘control office’ located at the District or Regional Hospital.

Read about this emergency transport system >

Pathfinder and its partners also aim to establish an SMS and emergency hotline system linked to mPesa, a mobile money platform, which will activate the transfer of funds for emergency transport for women experiencing obstetric emergencies as well as for elective transport for selectively screened, high risk pregnant women who will stay at maternity waiting homes adjacent to Sengerema Designated District Hospital and Shinyanga Regional Hospital.

These innovative partnerships allow Pathfinder to bring services closer to the women, men, and young people who need them most.