Footprints and Milestones
MAZA’s second quarter of operations was marked by several important milestones. First, the number and diversity of the clinical conditions of people requesting urgent health transportation rides from MAZA continued to increase.
Between the launch of MAZA on December 17, 2015 and June 30, 2016, we transported 59 people in need of urgent or emergency health care during 52 rides in Chereponi District in the Northern Region of Ghana (Figure 1).
Consistent with our focus on maternal and newborn health and similar to last quarter, the majority (60%) of our customers were sick newborns and women in labour or with complications following delivery at home (Figure 2).
Second, to date, we have subscribed 531 pregnant women in Chereponi District who represent about one quarter of the estimated number of pregnant women in the district. About 80% of them were in their third trimester of pregnancy while 17% and 3% were in their second and third trimesters respectively. And, we have conducted 419 home visits so far.
Of note, we have adapted our subscription model towards subscribing more pregnant women at the community level rather than at antenatal clinic so that we have the opportunity to meet other members of their household who play key roles in deciding where delivery will take place and who will pay for transportation to the hospital if skilled health care is desired.
Third, we have seen a marked improvement in MAZA drivers servicing of their vehicles regularly, which has led to fewer repairs and improved reliability of our service. Furthermore, MAZA drivers continue to adhere reliably to their on-duty call schedule for health transportation, which is about two days a week for 24 hours at a stretch. On the other days of the week, they use the tricycles to earn a living from commercial transportation, mostly transporting passengers and goods to local markets.
Fourth, we established a partnership with The Workspace Global to manage our communications, including our website, social medial channels and newsletter, the first issue of which was published in May 2016. In less than three months, The Workspace team has already substantially increased MAZA’s followers and supporters on social media, enabling us to reach a much wider global audience.
Finally, from a fundraising perspective, our Founder and Chief Executive Officer was selected to join the prestigious Echoing Green Global Fellowship program for social entrepreneurs for the 2016 to 2018 period. MAZA was also selected as one of 50 finalists out of a pool of 650 applications for the Saving Lives at Birth Grand Challenge for Development, which if successful, would enable us to scale up to a second district. Interviews and final decisions will take place in Washington DC, USA, from July 26 to 28, 2016. More details of our progress to date are provided below.
In addition to self-financing from MAZA’s Founder, we have raised US $34,745 from 41 individuals through our online donation platform since November 2015. We wish to express our gratitude to all our generous donors and supporters so far who have enabled us to sustain our operations, particularly conducting home visits almost every week this quarter. However, we have not yet raised sufficient funds to procure the five additional tricycles that we need to provide more reliable service (i.e. increase the density of tricycles from 1 per 3,500 to 1 per 2,500 population and from 1 per 83 square kilometers to 1 per 60 square kilometers). For those who would like to donate to MAZA, please visit: http://www.mazatransport.org/donate-options/.
MAZA is moving! Join us to save lives through timely access to health care (#savinglives): www.mazatransport.org, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. For regular updates, please sign up for our newsletter.
The author is the Founder and CEO of MAZA. She can be reached at ntwumdanso@mazatransport.org.
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