For many years, women in the rural areas around Cambine have lacked access to quality prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care services, and even care for their newborns. Through the newly upgraded United Methodist Church Maternal and Child Clinic, these needs are now being addressed.
The Mozambique Conference Health Board, supported by Abundant Health, has launched a pilot project to address high maternal and child mortality rates in Cambine. The clinic is providing affordable and accessible quality services for women and children.
A volunteer network of Community Health Advocates (CHA) has been trained to visit their pregnant neighbors. They provide them with health education and care, encouraging the women to visit the clinic regularly and to have their babies delivered by trained midwives at the clinic.
The CHAs use cell phones to call the clinic coordinator when they identify a pregnant woman in need, find an obstetric emergency, or call for advice for a patient in distress. Pregnant women also receive follow-up reminders for their prenatal appointments.
Six months into the Abundant Health program, more women are attending the clinic. They are asking their CHA to accompany them, and some even pay their bus fare, because the CHAs have become trusted advocates and a source of vital support. The Mozambique Ministry of Health has congratulated this program on its success in the community, and has offered partnership through the deployment of a doctor to the clinic.
