OHW saves the lives of women and children in rural, undeserved communities. We focus on education and training in maternal child health and facility improvements.

Problem

Every year, half a million women die in pregnancy and childbirth, 4 million infants are stillborn and another 4 million will die before they are one month old. Death rates of women and children in remote districts of northwestern Nepal are among the highest in the world. Up to one in twenty mothers and one of three newborns do not survive childbirth. To date no other organization has been able to deliver a sustainable maternal child health program to these areas. One Heart World-Wide (OHW) is seeking to implement a comprehensive maternal child health program through its Network of Safety model in ten of the least developed and underserved districts in northwestern Nepal.

Solution

OHW has established the Network of Safety, an effective, replicable and sustainable model to reduce preventable deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth among vulnerable indigenous populations. The OHW model improves the health and wellbeing of pregnant women and newborns that may not otherwise have access to health services due to socio-cultural barriers, limited personal resources, or living in remote locations. Essential to the OHW model are integration of local resources, collaboration with local communities and providers, and respect for cultural norms and practices. The Network of Safety is a community-based participatory model aiming to build local capacity (training and equipment) at various levels. OHW works simultaneously with local communities and local health care providers to raise awareness, teach good practices and distribute essential supplies to ensure that mothers and babies survive pregnancy, delivery, and the first months of life.

Example

Though she is only 15 years old, Victoria Cienega Castro has already been helping mothers in her community. She joined the OHW Network of Safety to help her realize her dream of nursing. As one of the volunteers we have trained, Victoria serves an area consisting of 13 communities. Victoria currently oversees 6 pregnant women. She gives them safe motherhood messages during and after pregnancy, prenatal vitamins, and clean birth kits. OHW provides Victoria with training and equipment to be able to measure blood pressure and heart rate, as well as recognize the danger signs of pregnancy and delivery before a complication occurs. At this point, Victoria is the only consistent medically trained person in her community. With the skills she has learned, she has helped evacuate a pregnant woman with preeclampsia and a baby with complications. Since her training, Victoria has attended two deliveries for mothers who could not reach the clinic on time. Victoria told us, "we had to walk two hours to reach her only to find it was too late and she had to deliver at home." Because of the unsanitary conditions the mother was in, Victoria had to use OHW's clean birth kit. "Her delivery was successful without any complications," she said to us proudly. Victoria's community admires her dedication to her people. Our model has allowed Victoria to contribute to her community, educate people about proper maternal health practices, and ultimately - save lives.

Marketplace

There are a number of organizations working to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates. What sets us apart is that we are working where no one else dares, and where need is the greatest. While more accesible areas are saturated with Maternal Child Health programs, the populations we target are hard to reach and therefore often forgotten by similar MCH intervention programs. Our model has been proven to be successful, replicable and sustainable. Competition over funding sources would be the only challenge that our peers might pose. However, OHW does not see these organizations as threats to our success, as we are all working toward the same goal - to provide every woman with a safe birth experience and to help infants survive childbirth and the first months of life.