Improving maternal and new-born health outcomes
Background
Teso Safe Motherhood Project (TSM) is a non-denominational, non-profit organization (NGO) that serves the neediest and most vulnerable people. The organization started as a Community-Based Organization in 2005 to serve the internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had camped in Soroti town in various IDP Camps. It was later granted NGO status in 2009. TSM is currently operating in Soroti and Serere Districts. The geographical choice is informed by the fact that these districts have high concentration of poor and vulnerable people per square meter in the Teso region, as reported in the spatial trends report of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. The two districts have a high poverty density and have registered little progress in terms of poverty reduction in the last 15 years. However, due to the rising demand for specialized quality reproductive health services, TSM plans to increase its coverage to all of Teso’s sub-regions. Most of TSM’s clients are the vulnerable rural poor and geographically disadvantaged with limited access to quality basic health care and safe motherhood services.
TSM Areas of Focus
Objectives of TSM
TSM has the following organizational objectives:
- Improve access to facility based and community based quality maternal, newborn and infant care, SRH, and HIV/AIDS services for the most vulnerable women of reproductive age living in Teso;
- Complement and support the mainstream existing maternal health, SRH, and HIV/AIDS service providers and the relevant government policies in Uganda;
- Influence safe maternal health practices among health professionals, the benefitting community and social institutions in Teso;
- Build the capacity of health professionals and institutions to be able to respond to challenges of maternal, SRH, and HIV/AIDS health care in
- Empower the community health groups through microfinance development through saving and loaning for health community insurance.
- Enhance the capacity and influence of TSM, and support the development of the volunteerism spirit by deploying both local and international volunteers to community MCH, SRH & HIV/AIDS
- Enhance productive livelihood and well-being for people living with HIV/AIDS and their
- Increase awareness of malaria, SRH, MCH, TB, COVID-19, and other infectious diseases in our communities and GBV through.
- Support Orphans and Vulnerable children street children and open an orphanage for their care and
- Establish a waiting shelter for high-risk pre-laboring mothers at Teso Safe Motherhood Static Clinic to facilitate effective skilled delivery, reduce maternal and neonatal complications and death.
- Establish TSM’s long-term and self-sustaining income-generating projects, like Teso Safe Motherhood hospital, to support and sustain the organization’s initiatives.