Born in\u00a0the village of Zagayu in\u00a0Itilima district,\u00a0Tanzania,\u00a0Paulina\u00a0Boniface\u00a0Dotto, 53,\u00a0has\u00a0been working with the Uzazi Uzima\u00a0(Kiswahili for \u201cSafe Deliveries\u201d)\u00a0project\u00a0implemented by Amref\u00a0Health\u00a0Africa.\u00a0She devotes her time to promoting the value and importance of antenatal care services (ANC).\u00a0Paulina\u00a0started working as traditional birth attendant\u00a0and she\u00a0was later\u00a0trained\u00a0to become\u00a0an active Community Health\u00a0Worker\u00a0(CHW)\u00a0in her\u00a0village.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zagayu Centre is one of the health facilities supported by the Uzazi Uzima project. Through the project, attendance of ANC visits as well as deliveries at the facility have increased. For example, between July and September 2020 about <\/strong>221<\/strong> women attended and completed ANC visits at the health facility, compared to 13<\/strong> women between July and September 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Paulina\u2019s\u00a0success in increasing\u00a0the attendance\u00a0at the health facility\u2019s antenatal care clinic\u00a0was not\u00a0easy;\u00a0she experienced a number of obstacles\u00a0along\u00a0the\u00a0way. One of the\u00a0biggest\u00a0challenges\u00a0was misconceptions\u00a0that community members had about ANC visits.\u00a0As a trained CHW,\u00a0she deliberately decided\u00a0to\u00a0start her work by visiting each pregnant woman in her area, covering the entire\u00a074 households<\/strong>\u00a0she was assigned to.\u00a0She played a big role\u00a0in\u00a0raising awareness in the\u00a0community\u00a0to understand the importance of ANC visits.\u00a0Among her tasks was to\u00a0encourage male\u00a0involvement\u00a0during the\u00a0ANC\u00a0services.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paulina proudly shares her experience and milestones. For example, in a period of one month, she refers nearly 12 to 13 pregnant women to the health facility for ANC. As a trained CHW, Paulina keeps records of all clients either referred or escorted to the health facility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Paulina believes that community sensitization is very crucial as there are still some instances where misconception about ANC visits has prevented women from attending the services. Paulina strongly advises conducting more outreach services and sensitization to the hard-to-reach areas as a critical strategy to ensure community members understand and see the importance of the ANC. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Born in\u00a0the village of Zagayu in\u00a0Itilima district,\u00a0Tanzania,\u00a0Paulina\u00a0Boniface\u00a0Dotto, 53,\u00a0has\u00a0been working with the Uzazi Uzima\u00a0(Kiswahili for \u201cSafe Deliveries\u201d)\u00a0project\u00a0implemented by Amref\u00a0Health\u00a0Africa.\u00a0She devotes her time to promoting the value and importance of antenatal care […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[32,267,176,157,123],"class_list":["post-579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/amref.org\/tanzania\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2021\/03\/Paulina-Boniface-Dotto-\u2013-a-CHW-at-Zagayu-centre-which-is-one-of-the-facilities-supported-by-Uzazi-Uzima-project-10.jpg","yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n