Wawezeshaji wa Afya ya Jamii wapo mstari wa mbele kwenye sekta ya afya Tanzania

Electronic Afrika imeanzisha mradi wa eAfya wilayani Kilombero utakao wasaidia Wawezeshaji wa Afya ya Jamii (WAJA). 

Watoto 390 waliyo chini ya miaka mitano wanafariki kila siku kwa magonjwa yanayotibika na kuzuilika kwa mujibu wa UNICEF. Asilimia 32% ya vifo hivyo ni watoto wachanga waliyo na umri wa chini ya siku 28. 

WAJA wanatumia smartphone kumfuatilia mjamzito na hatimaye mtoto wake anapojifungua kuhakikisha afya zao ni salama. Sisi tunaamini ni kheri kuzuia kuliko kuuguza kwa hiyo kazi kubwa ya WAJA ni kuelimisha jamii kama utakavyoona kwenye filamu hapo chini.  

 

Elimu ni ufunguo wa maisha (Education is the key to life)

Improving literacy at Lungongole primary school in Kilombero district

Elimu ni ufunguo wa maisha (education is the key to life) reads the caption below the sign.

Lungongole primary school is a twenty minute drive away from the main town of Ifakara with a splendid view of the Udzungwa mountains. I had the pleasure of meeting some of the six hundred students who attend the school today and I left with a sober reality of the challenges facing our kids in some of our educational facilities.


There is one teacher for every sixty six students and sometimes there are one hundred students per class forcing some to sit on the floor or bricks.
 
Only 50% passed grade four exams because the other half cannot read or write. Others slipped through the cracks and ended up in the higher grades without being literate and the principal (head master) plans to place them in a remedial literacy class next year. Literacy is the foundation of knowledge and the valiant teaching staff at Lungongole want every single one of their students to read and write by the end of next year. It is an ambitious goal considering grades one and two have no text books and the overall learning environment is fraught with obstacles such as no running water, electricity and meager nutrition.


Electronic Afrika will provide digital learning tools to improve reading and writing skills at this school and we are very excited about the prospect of teaming up with other digital change-makers in Tanzania to make this happen. Stay tuned to this blog for future updates regarding Lungongole primary school and other education initiatives from our organization.

Internet connectivity in Tanzania

Electronic Afrika has to find effective Internet connectivity solutions in remote parts of Tanzania.

LX Technological Solutions designed and locally built this solar powered all weather device to access the Internet from existing telecommunications infrastructure.  

Less than 15% of Tanzania's population has Internet access. Electronic Afrika is supported by LX Technological Solutions which is developing various Internet connectivity methods in rural Tanzania-especially in those areas beyond the reach of telecommunications networks.   
We use a solar powered wireless device for 3G Internet connectivity at our office and we plan to upgrade to 4G soon. 

LX will setup multiple long range (7Km radius) Internet hot spots in Kilombero district which will allow our Community Health Workers to transmit and receive data from the field. We are hoping such technologies will enable the scaling-up of our projects nationwide and also offer Internet connectivity solutions to other organizations.

All kitted and ready to go

We are up and running. The Community Health Workers have their new bicycles and solar kits, and the data has started to flow. We cannot overstate their enthusiasm and work ethic which fuels our motivation as we fine-tune our processes.

   

Community Health Worker Workshop

We are now in full swing with field trials scheduled to commence next week. Ten community health workers (CHWs) or health agents (CHAs) as they were previously known have joined the group and they attended a refresher course in Ifakara last weekend. Many topics were reviewed including the integrated management of childhood illnesses. We also introduced the CHWs to a SMS-based antenatal care system and gave them a smartphone tutorial.

The technology is the easy part

Community health workers are the unsung heroes of depleted health system in a picturesque valley in Southern Tanzania called Kilombero. They are on the front-lines of a health system that has one medical doctor for every thirty thousand inhabitants yet they receive marginal to no recognition and very little to no pay.

Newborn babies account for close to a third of the fatalities that occur daily among children under the age of five in Tanzania. 130 babies die within 28 days of being born from mainly preventable causes. These are precisely the type of situations where community health workers can make a significant contribution since half of all births take place at home and mostly in unsanitary conditions. Health education and health facility referrals to expectant mothers can make the difference to newborn baby survival.

Electronic Afrika intends to provide innovative methods to health information delivery in rural Tanzania. We believe the answer lies in adapting communication technologies to the local context and environment. Tremendous gratitude goes out to Tigo Tanzania and Reach for Change for supporting our eAfya (eHealth) initiative with a $20'000 prize and social business training.