Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 2 out of 3 global maternal deaths related to complications from pregnancy and childbirth. Our M-Mama program is changing that with its Emergency Transport System (EmTS)–an innovative solution that uses digital technology to triage a patient remotely 24/7 and dispatch an ambulance or community driver to bring the patient to a health facility, a process that takes an average of two minutes.

In July, members of Touch Foundation’s Board of Directors visited Usanda dispensary, a small rural health facility located within Tanzania’s Shinyanga region. They spoke directly to women who had experienced life-threatening complications during labor and needed the EmTS to reach quality care. We met their healthy children and also the taxi drivers who responded to the dispatcher’s call and transported them to safety.

Anna shared her experience during her prolonged labor. The healthcare workers at Usanda dispensary determined that Anna was facing an obstructed labor and would need an emergency C-section to save her life and her baby’s life. Through the EmTS, healthcare workers connected Anna with a community driver who transported her—by that point unconscious—to Shinyanga Hospital, where she immediately underwent surgery and delivered a healthy baby girl.

Agnes was similarly transported to Shinyanga Hospital for an emergency C-section due to a prolonged labor. When Agnes awoke from surgery, she was shocked to learn that she had been pregnant with twin boys! Such surprises are not uncommon when access to healthcare, like prenatal services and ultrasound scans, is limited.

The taxi drivers shared a different perspective and reinforced how the EmTS is a market-based solution. According to one driver, before the EmTS, taxi drivers were sometimes called for medical transport and at times, would not be able to negotiate a reasonable rate with the patient. But that has changed with the implementation of the EmTS. Now, pre-negotiated rates are paid directly to the drivers upon completion of their trips and at no cost to the patient. Trips are often long distances, and the average taxi rate is $45.

Today, M-Mama is up and running in all six districts of Tanzania’s Shinyanga region, providing life-saving emergency care to 90,000 pregnant and post-partum women and their newborns. Since inception, M-Mama has transported more than 8,500 women and newborns and in two years, this cost-effective program will be fully adopted by the Tanzanian Government. Furthermore, based on the demonstrated success of M-Mama, the government is interested in expanding the innovative program throughout the country. And, excitingly, we are also expanding M-Mama to Lesotho as part of a sub-Saharan Africa expansion plan with Vodafone Foundation.

A special thanks to Pathfinder International, an integral M-Mama partner, for organizing the meeting at Usanda dispensary.

Zacharia Masatu, a 12-year-old from Tanzania’s Sengerema district, is the second youngest of nine children born to two farmers. Zacharia is in 6th grade at the Bukirigulu Primary School and had never seen a doctor before a Touch-supported heart screening at his school.

At the age of four, Zacharia’s parents started to notice that their son was not a healthy young boy. Zacharia had difficulty breathing and always seemed to have a cough. His parents did not think it was a serious disease, though, and took him for local herbal treatment. Although this did not seem to be working, Zacharia’s parents were not able to take him to see a doctor because hospital services were not financially or physically within their reach.

As part of our efforts to decrease cardiovascular disease, our partners at Bugando Medical Centre, with support from Touch and Medtronic Foundation, have screened over 3,000 school children in the Sengerema and Buchosa districts. The pediatric cardiologist at Bugando, Dr. Glory, performed an echocardiogram on Zacharia and immediately realized the 12-year-old was in grave danger. His eldest sister came to his school at once and the two traveled five hours to Bugando in Mwanza, a ferry and several hours away from Zacharia’s home in Sengerema, to seek life-saving treatment. Zacharia was diagnosed with a serious heart condition called Ebstein Anomaly and had surgery the following day. After just over 2 weeks, he was discharged, feeling better than ever before.

Unfortunately, the surgical team was unable to perform the corrective surgery Zacharia needed for complete valve repair because of Tanzania’s limited capacity for cardiovascular surgery. Instead, they drained his heart of fluid and administered medication that will allow him to better manage his condition going forward. As a result, Zacharia will never lead a completely normal life. He will not be able to play sports or become a farmer like his parents, and he will have to take medication and receive monthly checkups to manage his heart disease.

School heart screening projects targeting specific diseases (in this case, rheumatic heart disease) are often one-off endeavors, but Touch’s systems thinking and decades of experience in the region ensure that bedside ultrasound diagnostic capacity becomes embedded in district level health systems. Without bedside ultrasound diagnostic capacity reaching a school in rural Tanzania, Zacharia’s life threatening heart condition would not have been diagnosed, and Zacharia would not have had the chance to reach adulthood. Zacharia’s story is just one example of the ripple effect of impact that endures long beyond the life of Touch’s support for health system improvements.

Veronika Method, 23 years old, delivered her first four children in her home without any medical assistance. Veronika delivered her twins at Nyamizeze dispensary, but was told by local healthcare workers that she needed to be transported immediately to the hospital if she wanted her newborn twins to survive. Worried about the safety of her newborn twins, Veronika put her trust into a system completely unknown to her. To Veronika’s surprise, the nurses at the dispensary arranged for her and her neonates emergency transport with the help of the capable dispatchers. This is a system set-up as part of the Mobilizing Maternal Health program with Vodafone Foundation. Yesterday morning, Veronika became our 2,000th emergency case. The twins, Kulwa (4.4 lbs) and Dotto (3.5 lbs), are currently still in the NICU undergoing intensive treatment in the baby warmers and CPAP breathing machines.