Between January and March 2015 PANDA invited 100 women to participate in a pilot study on the feasibility and acceptability of the PANDA system in the Ambanja District, a mainly rural area in northwest Madagascar. The results of the pilot study have been published in the Journal Telemed Telecare.
Since then, PANDA has become a fixed presence within the clinic, and the team has expanded to include 1 midwife, 1 nurses, 1 doctors and a growing number of community health workers. To date we have received over 1,000 expecting mothers. PANDA is based at the Saint Damian Health Centre in Ambanja, and also provides antenatal care vistis at 13 health dispensaries in the surrounding rural areas.
The PANDA project in Madagascar is implemented by the NGO AISPO and funded by the Tavola Valdese Italia, Union of Methodist and Waldensian Churches, the Latin branch of the Swiss Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics and the Commission des Affaires Humanitaires (University Hospitals Geneva, Switzerland).
Hosting center for asylum seeekers CARA -
Mineo Italy
Migration Italy Context
Location: Mineo, Sicily
Official language: Malagasy and French
Population: 24.8 million people
Ambanja population: 28,400 people
Maternal mortality rate: 450 deaths per 100,000 live births