Storytelling contest winners announced
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January 2016 (Issue 1)

12 Stories:
Strong Health Systems Save Lives

Photo: Gwenn Dubourthournieu

For the fourth year in a row, Management Sciences for Health (MSH) invited staff to submit stories about how health systems save lives and improve the health of the poorest and most vulnerable worldwide. MSH staff from 34 projects submitted over 50 stories from 2015. These 12 stories, selected by MSH staff judges, demonstrate how good storytelling and effective partnerships can save more lives.

In this special edition of our Global Health Impact Newsletter, meet health workers, community leaders, pharmacy managers, beneficiaries working together toward healthier communities. (Stories appear alphabetically by country.)

Read Stories

Bangladesh

Anika’s Story: Intensified Case Finding of Pediatric TB in Bangladesh

by Zakia Sultana and Francis Hajong

With support from the Challenge TB project, funded by US Agency for International Development (USAID) and led by MSH in Bangladesh, intensified active tuberculosis (TB) case finding among high-risk groups, such as children, people living with HIV, diabetics, etc.; is saving lives, such as twenty-two-month-old Anika (pictured with her mother).
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Photo: Francis Hajong/MSH

Côte d'Ivoire

Ensuring HIV and AIDS Patients Receive Uninterrupted Treatment After Fire Destroys a Regional Pharmacy in Côte d'Ivoire

by Beata Imans

Thanks to timely support from the Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) to the Divo regional hospital immediately after a fire destroyed the pharmacy, antiretroviral distribution has continued without interruption to the Loh-Djiboua region of Côte d'Ivoire. Funded by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), administered by USAID and led by the Partnership for Supply Chain Management (PFSCM) -- a nonprofit organization established by MSH and John Snow, Inc. –- SCMS supplies lifesaving medicines to HIV and AIDS programs around the world.
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Photo: Beata Imans/PFSCM

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Golden Minute: Saving Newborns in Democratic Republic of the Congo

by Isa Iyungamo and Landry-Serges Malaba

Respiratory distress could have cost Baby Mushombe (pictured) his life -- as it does many infants in Democratic Republic of the Congo -- were it not for a team of midwives and assistants who had mastered Helping Babies Breathe, a resuscitation technique developed for environments with limited resources.
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Photo: MSH

Ethiopia

A Mother’s Wish Fulfilled: Rolling Out TB Contact Investigation in Rural Oromia, Ethiopia

by Berhan Teklehaimanot and Ali Galgalo

Aster Gemede (pictured) lost her husband to tuberculosis (TB) meningitis early in 2012. Struck with grief, she did not notice her own deteriorating health in the months after his death. When Gemede got to the point where she was unable to look after her two children, she was forced to walk eight hours from her home in rural Borena zone, Oromia, Ethiopia, to the nearest health facility.
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Photo: HEAL TB/MSH

Improving Service Delivery and Accountability through Drug and Therapeutics Committees: The Case of Bishoftu General Hospital

by Tsion Issayas

“We have come a long way,” Dagnachew Hailemariam, head pharmacist of Bishoftu General Hospital in Ethiopia, says. Through the systems and guidelines put in place with the help of the hospital’s Drug and Therapeutic Committee, supported by USAID-funded, MSH-led Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services Program (SIAPS), the hospital has decreased the expiry rate from 20 percent in 2009 to 4.5 percent in 2015 -- significantly cutting medication costs and increasing patient satisfaction from 55 percent to 90 percent in the same period.
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Photo: MSH

Madagascar

Pregnancy Tests Help Boost Family Planning in Madagascar

by Samy Rakotoniaina

The USAID Mikolo project, led by MSH, is helping avert missed opportunities for providing family planning by supporting local NGOs to train community health volunteers, such as Vololona Harivelo (pictured), in the use of pregnancy tests.

Health workers in Madagascar -- the first country to scale-up pregnancy test use by community health volunteers -- say the use of pregnancy tests has the potential to quickly increase modern contraceptive prevalence rates and use of antenatal care services.
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Photo: MSH staff

Namibia

Namibia: Pharmacy Assistants Trained to Deliver Quality HIV and AIDS Pharmaceutical Services

by Evans Sagwa

Through SIAPS, MSH has helped the Namibian Ministry of Health and Social Services establish a quality management system for training pharmacist assistants (PA), such as Martin Mandumbwa (pictured).
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Photo: SIAPS Namibia

Nigeria

Community-Based Health Insurance: a Lifesaver in Nigeria

by Adeola Ayo, Emmanuel Nwala, and Philomena Orji

Nse Usoro Odo (pictured right) is living proof of the health and economic benefits of community-based health insurance schemes in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
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Photo: MSH staff

Peru

Who Says Only Men Can Lead? Promoting Health and Gender Equality in Peru

by Eliana López

“Thanks to USAID there was a tremendous change in my community... more united, cleaner, women participate in the assemblies, men respect us, and the children are no longer sick like they were before,” said Graciela Quío (pictured), president of the Monte de los Olivos Community Development Committee.
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Photo: MSH staff

South Africa

KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: Innovating Solutions for Pharmaceutical Leadership, Governance, and Supply Chain Efficiency

by Gail Mkele and Susan Putter

Two MSH-led projects, SIAPS and SCMS, collaborated to support local leaders’ efforts to improve pharmaceutical leadership, governance, and supply chain processes at a provincial pharmacy depot in South Africa.
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Uganda

Option B+: Hope for HIV-Infected Pregnant Women, HIV-Free Newborns in Uganda

by Tadeo Atuhura

When Rose Chebet (pictured right) was five months pregnant with twins, she visited a hospital in Eastern Uganda for a routine antenatal visit. She was devastated to learn that she was HIV positive and she feared her twins would not survive.
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Photo: Tadeo Atuhura/MSH

TRACK TB Home Visits in Uganda Help Strengthen Adherence to TB Treatment

by Tadeo Atuhura

Through TRACK TB-supported monthly clinical reviews, medicine deliveries, quarterly home visits, and mentorships conducted by a district hospital, Flora Mugisa (seated) completed her multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment after nearly two years. USAID's TRACK-TB, led by MSH, supports 6 of 15 MDR-TB treatment facilities in Uganda and provides treatment services to over two-thirds of all MDR-TB patients in the country.
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Photo: Tadeo Atuhura/MSH

Thank you for reading MSH Global Health Impact. We encourage you to share these stories with your family, friends, and networks. On social media, share links to individual stories or to this email with hashtags #12Stories or #MSHHealthImpact. (Tag @MSHHealthImpact on Twitter, and on @Management Sciences for Health on Facebook.)

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Stronger health systems. Greater health impact.

Our Mission

Saving lives and improving health
of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people
by closing the gap between knowledge and action in public health.

Management Sciences for Health (MSH) uses proven approaches developed over 40 years to help leaders, health managers, and communities in developing nations build stronger health systems for greater health impact. We work to save lives by closing the gap between knowledge and action in public health. Since its founding in 1971, MSH has worked in over 150 countries with policymakers, health professionals, and health care consumers to improve the quality, availability, and affordability of health services.

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