Starting in 2019, COPE has extended the intervention activities carried out in the town of Ambanja to the health sector, previously carried out in the form of medical advice for children attending the Mangafaly Centre. With this project, however, a leap in quality is made, thanks to the funding of the Fondazione Cactus onlus, since intervention activities are financed whose direct beneficiaries are all the women attending the Ambanja urban health center, at least 1270 assisted during 2019, in addition to the health personnel who will benefit from the planned training.
International and local partners of the project are the "CHILDREN FIRST" Foundation of Lausanne, the ST Foundation, the Telma Foundation and the MIARO Association.
The main objective concerns the improvement of maternal and child health of pregnant women and newborns in the city of Ambanja, through the conducting quality pre- and post-natal medical visits in a healthy, clean and culturally acceptable environment as well as the availability of a room for training health personnel. The starting point is the renovation of the Ambanja Hospital Urban Health Center with the construction of the new maternal and neonatal health center, adjacent to the public hospital that will become the reference center for pre- and post-natal visits. The new building will consist of:
- a waiting room for pregnant women awaiting a medical visit (while waiting they will be able to watch videos on maternal health and, in general, on the behavior to adopt to achieve a safe pregnancy and optimal care for the child);
- a clinic equipped with all the equipment necessary for quality pre- and post-natal visits (with scales for adults and newborns, rapid tests for HIV, syphilis, malaria and blood group screening), as well as the possibility of an obstetric ultrasound system;
- a room for continuous training of staff with a PC to allow the creation of courses also online, video conferences, training with simulations etc.
An expected collateral activity will be community awareness and staff training on the health program maternal and neonatal health, which will be implemented on a large scale through local radio stations (Radio Ankoay, Radio Ekar and Rural Radio). Once the local community has been made aware of the maternal health project, training activities will be started for local staff who will be an active part in pre- and post-natal visits. For the training of staff, trainers will first be selected from teachers, representatives of the Malagasy Ministry of Health, doctors and midwives of the territory with whom the contents, means and timing of the training will be agreed. Once the training is completed, the pre- and post-natal visit program will be activated at the new dispensary.
It is expected to involve approximately 50-60 women per month and carry out 200 pre- and post-natal visits. Pre-natal visits will be facilitated by the use of an application developed with the WHO and downloadable on the smartphones of medical staff to improve the quality of the medical visit itself. The Ministry of Health will provide part of the dispensary staff as well as consumables.
