Home
Donate


Opal Health

Preventing maternal and newborn death in rural Uganda


Every 7 seconds, a woman or newborn dies from complications that were survivable.

In over 70% of cases the reason is the same: women reached care too late.

Opal Health Africa equips Uganda's frontline health workers to run monthly community dialogues using a proven, low-cost approach that has reduced maternal and newborn mortality by up to 49%.

Our program in numbers:

21,000

people reached


870

Direct participants in monthly community dialogues


28

monthly community dialogues

What Opal Health does

We partner with Uganda's Community Health Exension Workers to run monthly sessions where pregnant women and their family members identify what's stopping them from reaching care then solve the barriers together.

The approach is simple: bring communities together, ask the right questions, and let them build their own solutions. This methodology, called Participatory Learning and Action (PLA), has 25+ years of randomized trial evidence and a WHO recommendation behind it.

We provide both direct delivery and technical assistance to District Health Teams to integrate Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) into standard Community Health Worker activities.

Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) for Maternal and Newborn Health


How PLA works: The action cycle

This community-driven approach has a proven track record. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends PLA as a cost-effective way to significantly reduce maternal and neonatal deaths.

Over 25 years of evidence

49% decrease in maternal deaths

33% decrease in neonatal deaths

Our Team

Matt Beer

Co-founder

Startup founder and former Senior Civil Servant. Experience working in and with Governments to develop and implement policy at a national scale.

Melissa Kaminker

Co-founder

Development practitioner with experience bridging last-mile delivery and policy strategy across multiple emerging markets.

With your support, we can do more

It costs just $150 to bring a new community into the program. This cost covers monthly sessions, a trained health worker, and a chance for 25 mothers to change the trajectory of their pregnancies.

Get in touch

If you want to speak to us about what we do, please don't hesitate to get in touch

info@opalhealthafrica.org

Opal Health was incubated by Charity Entrepreneurship. Opal Health operates through Anti-Entropy, 501(c)(3) non-profit fiscal sponsor (EIN 88-0967420).

Privacy policy