Mama Tuk Health wins 3rd place enterprise award!

Photo courtesy of Amref International University. 

We are delighted to introduce Mama Tuk Health...

...3rd-place winner of the ‘From Idea to Impact’ business plan competition with Amref International University and brainchild of Xavier Osoro, Caroline Mwangi, Johnson Ong’any, and Ezekiel Maweu.

Huge congratulations on your innovative vision and upcoming social enterprise launch! 

Mama Tuk Health is a two-part enterprise solution to the challenge of accessing timely emergency health services in Kenya. Part one is a smart wristband that tracks maternal indicators and location data, linking patients to first responders and health facilities. Part two is transport – with solar-powered, centralized tuk-tuks. 

“Our main goal is to reduce maternal mortality rates because we see this as a sleeping giant, and it’s still growing,” says Xavier.  

In urban centers, pregnant women face a dangerous barrier: lack of timely transportation to health facilities. Despite paramedics and ambulances being available, it can take over 30 minutes for an ambulance to locate the patient and bring them to a hospital. 

Xavier knows this time can be the difference between life and death. In 2003, his father needed emergency services. The ambulance was unable to locate his home, and his family resorted to transporting him by car to the hospital. He never made it. 

“I was thinking: What if we had solved this with technology, what if they could have known the exact place where he was? Bringing that personal experience to the world of expectant mothers, where there are two lives, that has always been my motivation, the spark that has guided us to come up with this idea and to stick with to make sure it comes to fruition,” says Xavier.

Xavier, Caroline, Johnson, and Ezekiel just completed the ‘From Idea to Impact – Building a Public Health (Social) Enterprise’ 12-month learning cycle, a partnership project from AMIU, a subsidiary of Amref Health Africa, and FLRF. It aims to empower participants to conceive and implement business models that are both financially viable and aligned with their social objectives.

The team, including six others, is moving forward on part one of Mama Tuk Health. The enterprise will register this month. A wristband prototype is in production. Tracking vitals like pre-eclampsia and blood pressure, the device will alert paramedics for a checkup or transport as needed. Mothers who authorize it can link their wristbands to prior health data, saving critical time in emergencies. The team plans to partner with a maternity hospital and test the wristband in a small pilot with high-risk pregnant women. 

Part two, the tuk-tuks, will follow. The aim is to cut response times by keeping the tuk-tuks in communities with high concentrations of pregnant women – identified by wristband data and a linked app – rather than at hospitals. To be proactive instead of reactive. 

“We’re trying to be of help, but also to be sustainable by cutting down the cost if we can have these tuk-tuks solar powered. If they also have a battery, they can work 24/7,” says Xavier. 

They expect to launch part one by year-end. Xavier is also thinking ahead to mentoring the next cohort of students in the ‘From Idea to Impact’ program and forming collaborations to solve another challenge: How to access pre- and post-maternal care in the rural northeast where health facilities might be 60 kilometers away?

“If you care about something too much, then you have to do something about it. If we all join hands, we can slay this giant,” says Xavier. 

Heartfelt wishes for the best of luck to the visionaries behind Mama Tuk Health. We look forward to learning about your successes!

Two more ‘From Idea to Impact’ learning cycles are in the making. Discover more in the media release here. 

And watch this space for a profile on the 2nd-place ‘From Idea to Impact’ business plan competition winner… coming next week!