Pilot shipment of Clean Birthing Kits to Somalia

This report provides an in depth summary of the first pilot shipment of Clean Birthing Kits to Somalia. It will begin by providing a description of the political and social context of Somalia, outlining the numerous challenges that the Somali health care system faces in providing good quality maternal and child health care. It will then outline the health strategies and goals of World Vision Somalia and how Birthing Kits help to achieve these goals.

The report also contains a detailed summary of the two projects that the Clean Birthing Kits have been integrated into called “Health, WASH, and Protection Engagement in Baidoa” and “Wash, Health, Agriculture, and Economic Recovery Intervention in Somalia” or “WHAERIS”. These project descriptions also outline the indicators that will be used to measure the impact of the Clean Birthing Kits. Lastly, the report will illustrate the positive feedback that has been received about the pilot shipment of Birthing Kits. These results illustrate that the delivery of CBKs to Southern Somalia will be highly impactful in an area marred by political instability and fighting. The feedback from the pilot shipment shows that the Birthing Kits have primarily been used in home births as the region is often under curfew, making it impossible for women to travel to health centres. While the pilot shipment was only conducted in two of the four areas where CBKs will sent after the pilot phase, it is expected that the positive results will be extrapolated and that Clean Birthing Kits will be highly impactful in in the Somali context.