GUHUZA -Connecting mothers to health care through group SMS and ambulance services

In Rwanda, lack of access to health care, especially for rural communities, is reflected in high maternal mortality rates; 540 out of every 100,000 live births lead to a mother's death. The infant mortality rate is even higher - for every 1,000 births, 27 do not survive. Almost 37% of mothers deliver at home and only 35% of mothers attend appropriate antenatal care visits at clinics. To address this, ADRA will implement the GUHUZA project, to "connect" mothers to health care. GUHUZA will be the first to pilot the motorcycle ambulance program and its integration with a free group RapidSMS, CommConnect. CommConnect is a multi-tenant messaging system that builds on the current RapidSMS system in place in Rwanda. The new system will expand on the current one by allowing group SMS capability in the generation of trigger reminders from CHWs to mothers to ensure antenatal visits are timely. The motorcycle ambulance system, integrated into Rwanda's health care system at the health center level, will respond to pregnant women with danger signs or early labor in need of transport to a health center using the Group SMS features of CommConnect. The system will also be used to collect and synthesize utilization rate data for eight geographic sectors in the district of Gatsibo, Rwanda.