Celebrating Impact : Alain Nteff (Co-founder Gifted Mom)

Today we dedicate our post to our heroes who have impacted the lives of Africans in diverse ways in the pursuit of achieving equity in health care and improving our health systems.

These men didn't just talk about a need, they did something about it.

Their contributions may not have changed the world, but have helped in various capacities to stem the tide of maternal and infant death in the world.

Alain Nteff (Co-founder Gifted Mom)

"The problem of maternal and infant death is not a woman issue -- it's a humanitarian issue. Everybody should take seriously. We all have mothers, we all have sisters, and it's not just a problem for women or girls ...." Alain Nteff

23 year old Ntef, together with the Mobile alliance for maternal action created a mobile application that sends clinic and vaccination alerts to pregnant women and mothers of infants in Cameroon.

A country with a maternal mortality rate of 590 per 100000 live birth and has failed to meet the MDG target of 167/100000 live birth by 2015.

Health seeking behavior in Cameroon is poor with more than 64% of the women failing to seek postnatal care.

The need to create a low cost channel to educate women on when they should go for antenatal care and when they should take their babies for vaccination was evident.

"Our mission is really to create a world of mothers who are gifted. A world that is free of maternal and infant death -- a world of gifted moms," he says.

Currently there are about 3000 registered women in 18 villages, with a 20% increase in clinic attendance and about 200 health workers and medical students involved.

Through partnership with Local and International NGOs as well as hospitals, gifted mom has been able to provide life saving, low cost , mobile solutions to help improve maternal health and health outcomes in Cameroon.
The goal is to have reached about 5 million women across Africa by 2017.