Women, Children, and Adolescents' Health: Our Impact

Living positively with HIV: Nigerian entrepreneur grows her business, cares for herself and her family, and mentors others

November 28, 2018
{Photo credit: Mary Dauda/Keanahikishime}After nearly losing her business, Adekeye Dorcas now mentors HIV positive pregnant mothers in her community and trains apprentices in the art of nylon production.Photo credit: Mary Dauda/Keanahikishime

A trader skilled in the art of nylon production, Adekeye Dorcas once generated enough income to provide for her family. During a routine visit to the health center in Kwara state, she tested positive for HIV and was immediately offered counseling services and antiretroviral therapy (ART). The growing demands on her time to travel on open clinic days for ART and the cost of transportation began to threaten her family’s financial stability. She knew that adherence to her treatment was key to allowing her to live positively and ensuring that her husband remained HIV negative.

Midwives tackle leading causes of maternal and newborn mortality in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

October 30, 2018
{Photo credit: Rebecca Weaver/Keanahikishime}With the support of IHP, midwives are able to apply the helping babies breathe (HBB) approach to resuscitate newborns.Photo credit: Rebecca Weaver/Keanahikishime

“I became a nurse because my grandmother was a nurse, my sisters are nurses, and one of my aunts is a nurse,” says Neema Kitima, Head Midwife at Bahira Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). While 80% of births in DRC occur at health facilities with a trained assistant, maternal and neonatal mortality rates remain among the highest in the world. The most recent Demographic and Health Survey (2013–2014) showed that maternal deaths account for 35% of all deaths of women 15–49 years old.

Expanding Access to Voluntary Contraception: Changing Women’s Lives in Rural Malawi

October 05, 2018
A woman learns more about available family planning methods during an outreach clinic visit to Mulanje, Malawi.Photo Credit: Samy Rakotoniaina

 

Young People in Mali Call for the End of Harmful Practices through Performance and Poetry

August 13, 2018
A student from the center for educational activities of Sévaré reads of poem about female genital mutilation.

I do not agree with cutting I didn’t choose to be born a woman So why should I suffer By this removal that I have to endure?   On International Youth Day, communities around the globe will call for – and create – safe spaces for youth to express themselves, influence decision making, seek confidential care and information, and call out violations of their human rights. This year, youth highlighted the urgency of ending gender-based violence, female genital mutilation (FGM), and child marriage in a very public space in central Mali.

This Youth Leader in Malawi is Helping Adolescents Learn Critical Life Skills

August 13, 2018
24-year-old Hawa Swaleyi facilitates a discussion about relationships with her youth group at Kapiri Health Center, Malawi.

The grounds around Kapiri Health Center in Malawi’s Nkhotakota District are a beehive of activity, with boys and girls of all ages playing hotchpotch, kicking a makeshift ball, and chattering loudly. Suddenly, they run for the indaba—a repurposed outpatient waiting shelter. Hawa Swaleyi is approaching, carrying her frame with an aura of grace and positivity. With a familiar smile she greets her youth group, who cheerily respond in sing-song voices.

Can a Human-centered Design Approach to Group Antenatal Care Improve Women’s Pregnancy and Birth Experiences?

July 26, 2018

By Priyam Sharda, Design Research Lead for M4ID, and Shafia Rashid, Principal Technical Advisor for Keanahikishime. Photos by M4ID. “For the first three months, the baby is just blood. There’s nothing there to take care of,” said one Kenyan father-to-be in Kakamega County, Western Kenya, where we were meeting with communities and health care providers to learn about their attitudes toward women’s health, pregnancy, and care at health facilities.

Community Health Volunteers on the Frontline of Malaria Prevention

July 24, 2018
{Photo Credit: Samy Rakotoniaina/Keanahikishime}A USAID Mikolo-supported Community Health Volunteer makes a home visit.Photo Credit: Samy Rakotoniaina/Keanahikishime

Madagascar experienced a surge in malaria cases in 2015, particularly in the southwestern regions, despite the Ministry of Public Health’s efforts to combat the disease. Interventions such as insecticide-treated bednet distributions and indoor spraying proved insufficient to deal with malaria in rural areas.

World Population Day 2018 Highlights Ineffective and Unsafe Pregnancy Prevention Behaviors and Practices. What About Emergency Contraception?

July 11, 2018
{Photo Credit: Michael Paydos/Keanahikishime}While family planning was declared a human right 50 years ago, 59 million women and girls around the world still use traditional methods that are unreliable and may be unsafe.Photo Credit: Michael Paydos/Keanahikishime

Melissa Garcia is a Technical Advisor for the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception, hosted by Keanahikishime.  This blog was originally posted on the website of the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception, hosted by Keanahikishime  For this year’s World Population Day, our community celebrated and affirmed the right to family planning. On this day, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) also called attention to the many people around the world unable to realize this right.

Living Positively in Angola

June 13, 2018

Linking Mothers and Couples to HIV Testing and Care Shortly after the birth of her second child, Manuela dos Santos learned that she was HIV positive. Fearing how her family and friends might react to her diagnosis, she kept her status a secret for weeks. Fortunately, her child was born HIV negative, but Manuela’s health quickly deteriorated. At just 25 years old, she was losing weight, sleep, and the ability to care for her newborn child.

Pregnancy clubs: Group antenatal care in Uganda and Kenya

May 29, 2018
{Photo by M4ID}Women participate in the opening ceremony of a Lea Mimba pregnancy club session at a health facility in Kenya.Photo by M4ID

We were pleased to see the blog post from the Maternal Health Task Force which highlighted a review of published literature and informant interviews to develop a common model for group antenatal care (ANC), an innovative service delivery approach for re-organizing ANC in low-resource settings.

Pages