Foundation News
Praekelt Foundation secures UNICEF funding for PMTCT project in KwaZulu-Natal
Posted: 22.08.2011
Praekelt Foundation is delighted to announce our partnership with UNICEF South Africa, The Department of Health in Kwazulu-Natal, and Virtual Purple Systems. This project secured an 18-month funding commitment from UNICEF, with a total value of just over R2.1 Million in August 2011.
The project will target eThekwini and uMgungundlovu districts in KwaZulu-Natal Province, and within these districts, a total of 2 hospitals and 43 clinics. It's overall aim is to test the efficacy of SMS reminders reduce the rate of mother-to-child transmission of the HI-virus. At all of these sites, the IePRS (Integrated Electronic Patient Record) System will be installed and maintained by project partner, Virtual Purple. This system will allow these hospitals and clinics to do early enrollment of pregnant mothers and more effective tracking of mothers during pregnancy and once their babies are born. Once the IePRS system is in place, mothers can be enrolled and then based on the stage of pregnancy, personalized SMS reminders will be sent to each mother, via Praekelt's VUMI platform.
Says Marcha Neethling, head of operations for Praekelt Foundation: "The purpose of the SMS reminders, is to make mothers aware of critical times when they need to come for check-ups during pregnancy and once their baby is born. We also want to ensure that HIV positive mothers are carefully monitored and their CD4-counts checked regularly, so that can be fast-tracked onto ARVs when they qualify. HIV-negative mothers will get a different set of SMSs to encourage them to stay HIV-negative during their pregnancy."
Says Otty Mhlongo of the Kwazulu-Natal Department of Health:
"Thank you very much to all of you for the hard work, the support and the patience! I know that we all understand the great work ahead of us and I am confident to be in partnership with such a great team! "Yes" to an HIV free Generation. This is a possibility, and not just that, but "Yes" also to improved Maternal and Child Health!"
For more information on this project, please email marcha@praekeltfoundation.org