By Saumu Mwalimu
Health and Social Welfare Minister Dr. Seif Rashid has asked health stakeholders and other development partners to make a close follow up on projects they fund to see the impact.
Speaking when Vodacom Tanzania was handing over funds to the ministry to support the safe maternal health campaign through text messages, Dr Rashid said that it would be a waste if a programme launched for a good purpose just ended up without being followed up.
“It is a good practice to evaluate and see if the society has really benefited as intended. You have to ensure that mothers have been helped with the information in promoting their health during pregnancy and after birth,” he said.
He said that the ‘Wazazi Nipendeni’ campaign was launched in 2012 in order to sensitise and increase the number of pregnant women attending antenatal clinic early and increasing the number of women attending clinic at least four times during pregnancy.
He added that the campaign, among other means, is using text messages sent to mothers who have subscribed to receive various tips on maternal health, on the importance of taking anti-malaria drugs, testing for HIV and even after birth tips on various vaccinations.
Since it was launched, about 450,000 women have subscribed with an average of 21,000 women benefiting from the information every month. The women benefited from 34 million text messages sent from various mobile networks operating in the country.
Vodacom Chief of Corporate Affairs, Georgia Mutagahywa, said that the money given would facilitate the free text messages to be sent to registered mothers for the next one year.
“Vodacom through the Vodacom Foundation apart from other projects that we coordinate, see the need for a mother to have a safe pregnancy and a happy baby and this is why, for the next one year, no mother will be charged when she subscribes, our aim is to make sure that by July next year 500,000 women using Vodacom will benefit from various health pregnancy tips,” she said.
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