This Monday, WAJAMAMA had the exciting opportunity to educate over 500 girls on menstrual health and hygiene in a single afternoon. In collaboration with the Zanzibar Maisha Bora Foundation (ZMBF), chaired by the First Lady of Zanzibar, Her Excellency Mama Maryam Mwinyi, and the Ministry of Education, WAJAMAMA workshop facilitators traveled to rural Kijini. Here, we taught teenage girls from two different local schools about the menstrual cycle, after which we distributed reusable pads, and closed with a speech by the First Lady.

Starting this Saturday, WAJAMAMA will offer the new Women’s Express Check-Up service at its clinic. At this fifteen-minute consultation, women are screened for breast and cervical cancer and will get their blood pressure checked. The check-up is paired with a free educational seminar, where women can learn from the WAJAMAMA doctors how to manage their health and well-being.

In its mission to improve women’s health, WAJAMAMA hosts a Nurse Midwifery Workforce Development class. Because insufficient pre-service education causes a cycle of substandard care to generate and re-generate, WAJAMAMA coaches recently graduated nurses and midwifes from local universities. The foundation does this by making use of a world-class simulation lab, and through the theoretical course covered in this blog post.

Reflections from an intern regarding our Well-Girl program.