Marsabit woman feted for maternal health invention
What you need to know:
- Dahabo Ali Galgallo is considered one of the world's foremost experts for inventing a lifesaving technology that has directly saved 237 mothers and indirectly saved more than 1,000 in nomadic communities.
- In 2015, she developed a solar-powered tracking device to provide mothers and babies with critical prenatal and antenatal care.
- She was recently feted for her contribution to the health sector among the pastoralist communities.
At a time when women, especially from the pastoralist communities, were considered too fragile for the medical field and the world of science, Dahabo Ali Galgallo proved everyone wrong.
The 35-year-old is a registered epidemiologist by the Kenya Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (FELTP).
She is considered one of the world's foremost experts for inventing a lifesaving technology that has directly saved 237 mothers and indirectly saved more than 1,000 in nomadic communities.
In 2015, she developed a solar-powered tracking device to provide mothers and babies with critical prenatal and antenatal care (ANC). The GPS device is fitted onto the cultural jewellery on the wrists of expectant mothers and relays signals to satellites in space.
After receiving the signal from the GPS device, the satellite relays back the holder's position via a web-based application through SMS.
Healthcare workers
This, in return, enables the healthcare workers to pinpoint the gadget holder within or without the cellular network coverage.
It tracks them wherever they are, to ensure they do not skip their clinic appointments.
The gadget has facilitated enhanced location and monitoring of women’s pregnancies and health seeking behaviour, making a huge impact on maternal care and combating infant mortality.
It has reduced maternal mortality among the nomadic pastoralists in Moyale Sub-county.
It has also increased immunization coverage, antenatal visits, skilled deliveries, and early screening of other medical conditions.
Ms Galgallo was recently feted for her contribution to the health sector among the pastoralist communities.
Speaking at the ceremony, Kenya National Innovation Agency (KNIA) CEO Dr Tonny Omwansa, commended Ms Galgallo’s efforts.
Across the globe
"This a big challenge to other professionals to remember home and make sure their achievements also benefit their communities,” Dr Omwansa said.
He called on other professionals to give back to the society when they develop ground-breaking and lifesaving innovations like Ms Galgallo did.
The KNIA boss promised to ask the government to adopt the device so that it is cascaded in addressing other health challenges like TB and Covid-19 contact tracing.
Marsabit County First Lady Alamitu Jattani, praised Ms Galgallo for putting the county on the global map.
She said that despite Marsabit only being known for ethnic flare ups, there are intelligent people who could change the world's history.
Speaking to nation.africa when the Kenya Innovation Agency feted her at the St Peters ACK Hall in Moyale town last week, Ms Galgallo said her dream since childhood, was always to find solutions to the health challenges women in the region face.
Infant mortalities
The innumerable deaths of women in the pastoralists’ areas constantly broke her heart.
"As a medic, I was disturbed by the alarming maternal and infant mortalities in Marsabit County and I had to act quickly and come up with a long lasting solution,” Ms Galgallo said.
In 2015, Ms Galgallo led a study that followed mothers who gave birth at a regional hospital. Of the 1,042 mothers who delivered during the one-year period, 116 lost their babies during delivery.
Of these, 40 per cent had never visited an antenatal care clinic. Those who visited often travelled between 50 and 80 kilometres.
When she invented the gadget, she entered it in the Grand African Challenge (GCA) known as Seed Grants, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
She was one of the best six winners in Africa who were awarded Sh20 million in 2017.
She also won the First Lady's Marsabit Health Innovation Award funded by Amref (Innovate for Life Challenge in 2020).
Additionally, she won the Kenya National Innovate award under the medical technology category in 2020, which saw her receive Sh800,000.
After graduating with a Diploma in Medical Laboratory Science at KMTC, Ms Galgallo joined Kenya Methodist University where she graduated with a degree in medical laboratory science in 2014.
Across the globe
She then joined Moi University where she graduated with Masters of Science in Field Epidemiology, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Public Health (Reproductive Health).
Marsabit is among the pastoralist counties, which have been marked for the notoriety of maternal and infant mortalities of up to four times the global estimates.
The World Health Organisation says infant and maternal mortality rates are unacceptably high across the globe.
These deaths are caused by complications mothers experience during, and after giving birth.
Complications include haemorrhaging, infection and eclampsia, among others. While infant and maternal mortality rates occur more in developing nations, it is an issue that affects women worldwide.
The Northern Kenya region's maternal deaths is about 860 annually, largely due to low access to health services, prevalent illiteracy, retrogressive cultural practices and beliefs, remoteness and vastness of the county.
The implementation of the first phase of the device between 2015 and 2020, saw massive milestones with antenatal visits increasing from 30 to 70 per cent.
The beneficiaries were from ten sites including Qilta, Laqi, El-raya, Teso, Erwedhe, Funandimo, Yaballo Goda, Chiracha, Qalaliwe and Antut areas in Moyale Sub-county.
Odda Location, for instance, witnessed an increased antenatal care from 50 clients in 2015, to 272 clients in 2018.
Averagely, the track and save services increased ANC visits from 16 to 80 per cent between 2015 and 2020.
Moyale Sub-county Superintendent Ibrahim Kontoma, praised the innovation for increasing the healthcare services accessibility in the far-flung areas. He added that the device has helped solve the home and transport delays of patients to health facilities.