Tanzania – Mama Kwanza Project

Supporting training and health promotion in rural Tanzania.

The Mama Kwanza (Mother First) project provides health care and education to more than 3,000 mothers and children, predominantly from Maasai communities based mainly in the Ngorongoro conservation area. The project, a partnership between the Tanzanian organisation Green Hope and the University of Saskatchewan, uses our films in Swahili to help train local midwives and traditional birth attendants (pictured on the right).

“We liked the simple messages, good summaries and the fact it was available in our local language. The content was appropriate for nurses and health facility providers in our setting”.

The project also provides patients in waiting areas of remote health clinics with accessible health care information. One of the main health challenges in this area is to increase antenatal visits among Maasai women, whose traditions include a strong belief around giving birth at home and who often have to travel significant distances to reach antenatal clinics. Screening films in the rural clinic waiting areas, such as ‘warning signs in pregnancy’, ‘antenatal care’ and ‘is your child sick?’, provides rare opportunities for these women to receive accessible and relevant maternal and child health education.

“This video was very popular for these groups and there was significant interest. We would start and stop the film as a tool for discussion. It was obvious that the participants appreciated the clarity in which essential information was displayed”.