Happy World Health Worker Week!

We're taking this opportunity to acknowledge and thank all of the global health workers who work tirelessly every day to care for families around the world.  We appreciate you!

Learn more about World Health Worker Week: April 1-7, 2018

WEEMA truly values the dedication and commitment of Ethiopia's frontline health care workers, Health Extension Workers (HEWs). Together, in partnership with D-Tree International and Ethiopia's Ministry of Health, we are developing and implementing a comprehensive mobile tool to empower these women to provide high quality maternal child health care.  While our pilot program is located in the Kembata-Temabro Zone, we plan to see this program scale to all 35,000 HEWs serving rural communities throughout Ethiopia.   HEWs- with these phones in hand- save lives.

International Women's Day

This International Women’s Day, we are proud to celebrate women everywhere by announcing WEEMA’s new project, Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management in Kembata Tembaro Zone for School Girls at Saruma Primary and Middle School.

Due to cultural norms, menstruation is not openly discussed or well understood, so girls tend to endure challenges in silence. Without access to sanitary pads, many girls often have no choice but to use rag clothes or other unsanitary alternatives. Besides the discomfort and risk of infection from using rags, girls are also afraid of embarrassment from an accident if using a rag while at school. 

In Saruma, as in many similar rural schools, menstruation is a common reason for school absenteeism and even school drop out.

This project aims to change mindsets of girls, boys and parents concerning menstrual health. WEEMA will teach about menstruation health and hygiene management (MHHM) in order to break stigmas and keep girls in school. We will also distribute MHHM kits produced by Studio Samuel Foundation.

These kits include:

• soap
• underwear
• a washcloth
• two reusable pads
• plastic bag

Studio Samuel is an NGO whose life skills training  includes teaching girls to sew high quality reusable pads using locally sourced materials through peer-to-peer learning. You can learn more about them here.

In the true spirit of women’s empowerment, WEEMA and the school will organize to show the school girls short videos and stories of successful women in leadership.

Listen to these rural farmers- they can see again!!

WEEMA International won a "best practice" health award for its cataract work in Ethiopia.  WEEMA, with its partners Himalayan Cataract Project and the zonal health departments, has hosted 3 high volume cataract campaigns in Kembata-Tembaro and Haydia Zones and served over 2000 patients.  In recognition of this work, a large Ethiopia NGO association made a "best practice" film.  We clipped some of the patient stories to produce this short trailer (note, you will hear shifts in music in the background.)

Watch this sweet trailer below.

IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE FULL 18 MINUTE "BEST PRACTICE" SEGMENT, VIEW HERE.

IZUMI Foundation visits WEEMA program in Ethiopia

Last week, Gretchen Stoddard, the Program Director at the IZUMI Foundation, traveled south with the WEEMA team to see our mHealth program in action.  IZUMI Foundation is generously supporting this innovative approach to empower community health workers with a $100,000 grant.

Gretchen reports, "What a wonderful experience to visit WEEMA in Ethiopia! IZUMI Foundation is excited to see the mHealth program grow and thrive to improve child health. We were thoroughly impressed with all of WEEMA's programs and their dedicated and passionate team! Thanks you for the excellent visit!"

The community health workers also shared their enthusiasm with the team.  Here are some of their comments: 

• "This (program) contributes to the quality of our service. We are sure of what we are doing."
• "Previously caregivers preferred to go to the Health Center. Now this is improving. They are also coming for (their child's) followup appointment, and they are coming before their appointment to say children are getting better."
• "Different organizations have come and some cause confusion...This is clear and exemplary."
• "Mothers are happy."
• "Before we were using chartbooklets...now things are clear. Everything is guided. It simplifies the work....The number of children coming has increased."

Thank you, IZUMI Foundation!

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This past spring, IZUMI awarded WEEMA for it program Empowering Health Extension Workers in Ethiopia: Addressing Under-5 Child Mortality with Clinical Support Tools. The tool is an app designed by D-Tree International that allows Health Extension Workers (HEWs) to more quickly and accurately diagnose sick children and provide appropriate treatment. Thanks to this grant, WEEMA is able to keep more families and children healthy!