The Mount Meru Foundation has been able to give on loan a mobile ultrasound machine to Johanna Omar, a German midwife on Zanzibar. With this we have been able to start her project for mobile pregnancy checks in the outreach of the island.

Many people know Zanzibar for its breathtaking beaches and palm trees. Only a few know about the poverty in the villages in the outreach. In the past year, Johanna set up a whole program for mobile pregnancy checks in these villages and arranged the necessary permissions for this. All she lacked was a mobile ultrasound machine. Margriet and Anna Lied already gave her hands-on training in 2017 and 2018, so she came to us with her question.

We are happy that we were able to answer Johanna's question positively. In a short time we found the necessary resources and purchased a device. They could travel with Nico and Harriet van Diemen, a medical couple who went to Tanzania for a sponsored walking campaign for Amref and then went on holiday to Zanzibar. We would like to let them speak for themselves about their experiences:

On November 14, we met Johanna Omar, an enthusiastic midwife who has been working on Zanzibar for more than 15 years. On behalf of the Mount Meru Foundation, we handed her a portable ultrasound. This has been made possible thanks to donations in the Netherlands.

Johanna took us for a day to show her workplaces. Johanna and the employees of the various locations proudly spoke about their care for the pregnant women. They were happy with the possibility to improve preventive pre- and perinatal care with the help of the portable ultrasound.

This portable ultrasound makes a very important contribution to tackling complications surrounding births and reducing mother-child mortality. The enormous contribution of the ultrasound to the care of pregnant women has touched us. What a difference this ultrasound makes! So good to hear that there is also care from the Netherlands for further training and further training of midwives.
All in all, it was an honor to hand over this echo on behalf of the foundation. We hope that many more ultrasounds will follow!

We would like to keep you informed of how this beautiful project develops in the near future. Like Nico and Harriet, we are confident that mobile ultrasound will contribute to full-fledged pregnancy checks in the villages of Zanzibar. We are therefore very grateful to them for enabling a start of the project by personally handing over the ultrasound device!

 

Now also mobile ultrasound on Zanzibar!