MAMA Celebrates 2nd Anniversary with Launch of its Second National Mobile Health Program

The Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) kicked off its two-year anniversary early with the national launch of MAMA South Africa today, its second mobile health program. MAMA is a global partnership, launched on Mother’s Day 2011 by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which provides free, adaptable mobile messages to 140 organizations in 50 countries. These messages give mothers around the world access to culturally sensitive, timely health information through their mobile phones.

“The launch of MAMA South Africa is a milestone for the partnership, and a great way to celebrate our two-year anniversary,” said Kirsten Gagnaire, Global Director of MAMA. “Both MAMA South Africa and MAMA Bangladesh, which launched last year, are delivering a suite of innovative mobile content that’s helping more moms and their family members make informed healthcare decisions.”

The national launch of MAMA South Africa will help more mothers living with HIV through its new partnership with the Vodacom Foundation. The foundation will host MAMA South Africa’s mobile web, askmama.mobi on their platform, making information accessible free-of-charge to more than 25 million Vodacom customers. The foundation will also support the free SMS program offered through two inner-city clinics in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. In South Africa, MAMA uses multiple mobile channels, including SMS, mobile web (askmama.mobi), and USSD (an interactive quiz service)- to reach mothers.

In Bangladesh, MAMA’s mobile service, known as ‘Aponjon’ or the dear one, completed a successful national launch in 2012, enrolling almost 60,000 moms and training more than 1,000 community health workers to encourage mothers and their family members to use the mobile messages. MAMA Bangladesh is on track to reach two millions moms by 2015.

“Over the past two years, we have heard from mothers in Bangladesh, South Africa, and India about the critical need for our messages,” said Gagnaire. “In response, MAMA has deepened its investment to put the power of health in every mama’s hand and we look forward to launching nationally our third program in India,” said Gagnaire.

A Gift for MAMA’s Birthday – Donate A Photo

In celebration of MAMA’s second anniversary, the partnership is encouraging supporters to download, “Donate A Photo,” a new free app from Johnson & Johnson that helps people take action to support a cause. Each photo you upload goes to support MAMA.

• Download the Donate A Photo app: http://www.donateaphoto.com/
• Upload a photo and select MAMA to help more mothers receive timely, vital health mobile messages.

Tweet Me:  Celebrate @mamaglobal’s 2nd B-Day by downloading @donateaphoto app, help put the power of health in every mama’s hand http://ow.ly/kNRBH

For more information about MAMA, visit MobileMAMAalliance.org and follow us on Twitter: @MAMAglobal and Facebook.

###

About MAMA: The Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) is an innovative public-private partnership between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Johnson & Johnson, the United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation), the mHealth Alliance and BabyCenter.  MAMA engages an innovative global community to deliver vital health information to new and expectant mothers through mobile phones. MAMA began as a multi-million dollar investment to create and strengthen programs in three countries – Bangladesh, India and South Africa – and to enhance global capability of new and existing mobile health information programs for moms in those countries and beyond.

Since launching, MAMA’s work has been spotlighted and awarded by Fast Company, as the “Innovation by Design” award winner in the Service design category and nominated for the 2013 Global Mobile Award in the Best Mobile Health Product or Service category, at the Mobile World Congress.