Download or read book Empowering Women in Northern Ghana Through Maternal and Child Health Information written by Mohammed Rahana and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This poster is about empowering expectant women and new mothers in rural areas of northern Ghana by providing them with timely, targeted and action-oriented health information. Through the Technology for Maternal and Child Health (T4MCH) project more than 8,000 women have received weekly voice messages in their local language addressing maternal and child health (MCH) issues and partner/family support. The messages were developed in collaboration with Ghana Health Service (GHS), based on the needs of women in project location. More than 94,000 messages were delivered in the period between July 2017 and September 2018, with each woman receiving an average of 13 messages. The messaging service is combined with training and support for GHS workers in the use of ICT tools, to improve services and knowledge sharing with women and men at health facilities and in communities. To assess effectiveness and empowerment among women who received messages, T4MCH project officers (three women and one man, with support from GHS and other project staff) conducted 300 interviews involving 31 health facilities in September 2018. Women interviewed almost universally found that the information was very useful (100%), led to changes in their activities and belief systems (99%), and that they would recommend the service to others (96%). 74% of the women interviewed also felt that the messages had encouraged their partners and families to support them throughout their pregnancy u2013 assisting in household chores, providing nutritious food for the family and providing financial assistance. The empowering influence of the messages was clearly evident in the specific comments made during interviews, for example, u201cI live alone with my husband in a new communityu2026 the weekly messages I receive serve as my source of information on best ways to care for myself and I have delivered my baby without complicationsu201d. The project has thus empowered more than 8000 women and their partners to make healthy decisions for themselves and their families. Reference: T4MCH Mid-Year Monitoring Report to Global Affairs Canada, November 2018, SALASAN Consulting and Savana Signatures (not published).