Mieringa Girl Care Limited

webadmin — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 09:53:01 +0000

Mieringa Girl Care Limited webadmin Wed, 09/23/2020 - 11:53

A 3-In-1 product/service accessible via the Mieringa easy to read materials in form of posters and sign posts(for teens and youth), audio information available through a toll free call platform and SMS services(for the elderly and those with access to phones) that help to reduce cases of unintended and early pregnancies and other SRHR services for young people between 13 to 17 years affected by conflict and those in refugee host communities. Available in Lugbara and English languages

Introductions

Mieringa Girl Care Limited’s social mission is to reduce the number of early teenage pregnancy cases in the society through providing timely, convenient and confidential access to information about early teenage pregnancy.

It leverages low cost feature technologies that include SMS and IVR as well as easy to read materials in form of posters and sign posts to help young girls between the ages of 13 - 17 years to access information in local languages on early teenage pregnancies so that they are empowered to make informed choices on prevention. In Uganda, the teenage pregnancy rate is 24% with regional variations. This increases to 34% in the poorest households. In rural areas, 24% of girls experience early pregnancy compared to 16% of wealthier households and 21% of urban girls (UNICEF, 2015).

A 14 year old girl, who is in senior two leaving in Rhino camp settlement has a lot of difficulty in accessing convenient and confidential information about early teenage pregnancy. She fears to talk to her parents, teachers and community leaders about this issue. Currently, she can obtain this information from radio talk shows like Amazing life program on radio Pacis, posters and sensitization dialogues in her settlement, but if we provide her with convenient access to information and awareness through easy to read materials in form of posters and sign posts, audio information, toll free calls and free SMS’s, then we will observe reduced cases of early teenage pregnancies.

Progress and Results

The team had many test areas based on feedback from the end user

Needs assessment on their 3-In-1 product/service- the ‘’Mieringa easy to read materials in form of posters and sign posts, audio information, toll free call and SMS services’’ They also sought to find out the usage preference between Audio information and Visual presentations among girls. From the experiment, the discovered that the young girls and their parents accessed information through radio station and workshops as well as magazines of which these platforms aren’t readily available and easily accessible by them
Barriers that hinder access to information on the causes and prevention of early teenage pregnancies for young women: The experiment revealed that prevention of access to information about early teenage pregnancies by their parents is due to the poor attitude parents have towards this kind of information, religious beliefs, lack of time from parents to their young girls and ignorance from parents while for the girls, the barriers included poor cultural beliefs, the poor attitude village elders have towards this kind of information, and lack of support from government.
The use of sign posts and charts in disseminating information on early teenage pregnancy: This experiment sought to discover whether young girls in the age brackets of (13-17 yrs) and parents pay attention to information presented on sign posts and posters. From the experiment, the team discovered that information presented on sign posts and posters reaches out to a large number of people and provides guidance to parents on what to speak to the young girls. The information presented also encourage the young girls to open up and begin speaking to their parents about themselves.
Utilizing audio messages delivered through megaphones to foster young girls and parents to speak to themselves about early teenage pregnancy: From the previous experiment, as much as many people read sign posts and posters, there are those who rarely leave their homesteads. The audio messages intends to further spread the message on teen pregnancy deep through the available local council channels with the use of megaphones

Challenges and Lessons Learnt

From the study, there’s limited access to information about early teenage pregnancies across all levels due to the poor attitude that parents/elders/community members have towards this kind of information, religious beliefs, lack of time from parents/elders to talk their young girls and ignorance from parents/elders.

File Upload

Mieringa Fact sheet.pdf

Steamline

webadmin — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 09:28:38 +0000

Steamline webadmin Wed, 09/23/2020 - 11:28

An e-health platform that empowers clinicians to take care of their patients efficiently by providing them with the right information at the right time, patient safety prompts and resources to improve the quality of health care administered, hence saving lives.

Introduction

Streamline is an e-health platform that enables clinicians in resource poor settings to deliver health care efficiently by providing key patient safety prompts across the entire patient journey.

Stre@mline follows the patient journey incorporating demographics, triage, consultation, patient safety, investigation ordering and results, prescriptions, stock control of medicines, insurance, finances and with the ability to generate statistical data needed for monthly government Health Management Information System reports (HMIS), graphical trend data, etc.

Stre@mline is tailored to the specific context and needs of low-resource hospitals, has local technical support available, and is economically sustainable. We maintain a patient-centered, integrated approach, focusing on collecting key information needed by clinician in a busy clinical setting rather than extensive details on all patients.

Progress and Results

More than 250,000 patients, 465,000 patient visits have been registered on Stre@mline in 12 hospitals in Uganda. More than 600 clinicians and administrative staff use Stre@mline daily.

100% of children attending OPD care receive triage assessment helping to identify promptly the patients who need priority care

100% of patients undergo health screening, key to spotting any future health conditions in time.

100% Prospective audit of prescribing errors to allow targeted training for staff

Accurate real time data and clinical information

Guidance for correct management of patients available 24 hours a day

Challenges and Lessons Learnt

Implementing Stre@mline in hospitals is a change management process. Some clinicians do not have the computer literacy and skills to use digital tools. Sometimes, there is resistance to change. We collaborate with local hospitals to run a digital literacy program at their hospitals and work with hospital administration to emphasize the importance of Stre@mline and drive digital adoption.

Hospitals lack infrastructure eg. computers, Local Area Network (LAN) to use Stre@mline. We have set up flexible installment plans to enable hospitals acquire the infrastructure needed.

Implementing e-health platforms is an uphill task that requires a wholistic approach to all the challenges that hospitals face. A multidisciplinary team is important to make this happen.

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Stre@mline factsheet.pdf

eHealth

Mieringa Girl Care Limited

Introductions

Progress and Results

Challenges and Lessons Learnt

Steamline

Introduction

Progress and Results

Challenges and Lessons Learnt