One of the awardees, Dr. Agbor Ashu is the M&E Program Officer for GiftedMom, an application providing mobile health solutions in Africa.

Speaking to this reporter shortly after the Summit, Dr. Ashu said they leverage last mile technologies to provide pregnant women and new mothers access to health information and strengthen linkages to antenatal care.

In addition he said GiftedMom’s mission is to use mobile-based solutions to increase maternal engagements and ensure a world free of maternal and infant deaths. He went on that Antenatal Care (ANC) is key in the reduction of maternal and newborn deaths but according to him, a good percentage of women in Africa never go for an ANC visit during the critical first trimester.

He said at GiftedMom, they sensitize pregnant women in low income areas on why they should do their ANC and provide follow up and also notify subscribed women by SMS on when they should do their ANCs and also tell them why.

Dr. Ashu went on to say a good number of babies die per year in Africa from vaccine-preventable diseases. He said GiftedMom tracks the vaccination program of children less than 5 years, remind their guardians through SMS on when and where to take their children for the next vaccine.

He said their aim is to use low cost technologies to fight ignorance in maternal and newborn health issues, adding that they send SMS with educative messages to empower women’s health and those of their babies.

Coming to Sierra Leone to work with young people and sharing their innovations with them will be a dream come true for them both.