UNLEASH+ 2020 has unleashed the giant within!

If we all observe carefully around us at home, work, school and everywhere else, we will surely notice some challenges. They are things that act as obstacles in our lives and work. These challenges have not been obstacles to my fellow clinician, Emmanuel F. Mushi.

From the time he noticed many neonates dying, he started to think and read about ways he could prevent death. He reviewed to know what was the cause and how to prevent. Newborns were dying, as it is the case in many health facilities in the developing world, due to medical conditions which could be prevented. Newborns were and are still dying from hypothermia, a medical condition that happens when the body can not produce enough heat energy to sustain life. In this condition, the body loses more heat energy than it produces. Of course, there are major underlying causes to the condition, mainly prematurity, sepsis, congenital anomalies, birth asphyxia and trauma. It is important to highlight that neonatal disorders have been the leading cause of all deaths from 1990 to 2019.

With little resources, Emmanuel F. Mushi started to develop a modified incubator, embrace nest and an angle mark. The modified incubator has been made to maintain the body temperature of the newborn and at the same time to prevent infection from the surroundings. The embrace nest which contains a porch for a pre-heated paraffin wax saves to maintain body temperature when the newborn is referred to a more advanced health facility. The heat can be maintained for at least 7 hours. All these two tools have got a temperature regulation mechanism to ensure that the baby is not cooked and to give an alarm when the temperature falls very low. Lastly, angle mark is used to aid the opening of the airway for the asphyxiated babies.

According to the clinician, Emmanuel F. Mushi, since 2018, when the three tools were introduced in his health facility, there has been no newborn death with prior mentioned medical conditions leading to hypothermia. All babies have been managed or referred successfully to a nearby advanced health facility. More than 200 newborns lives have been saved in a span of 17 months.

In his quest to find support for mass production of the tools to save more newborns, he was connected to me through my work colleague. He told me what he has done and shared so many pictures and videos of the babies who otherwise could have been dead. Being a medical doctor myself, it was easy to understand the big impact he is making.

I don't remember the exact date, but that was the time I decided to focus and work mutually with him to present the already working prototype to other people focusing on SDGs. Of course, we are dealing with SDG 3, ensuring health and well-being for all. I sat time apart to think of all possible avenues I could get it. He told me that many government officials were aware of his work but nothing has been done to take it further. He has appeared in major communication media of the country but no one had shown interest to take on the idea.

Then I got an email from UNLEASH innovation lab about  @UNLEASHlab. I said 'Yes, this is the right avenue'. I started all the initial application process and we submitted the idea. Thanks to the mother nature, we were selected to join the pre-acceleration programme. Today we have completed the first phase of the programme by pitching our idea on saving and serving neonates to the judges and our fellow UNLEASH+ 2020 participants. We pitched to ask for an investment of US $50,000 to make our tools perfect as possible, to validate the new prototype and to start a small factory where we will be able to produce the first 100 units of each of the three tools i.e modified incubator, embrace nest and angle mark. We believe that if we can make these tools available to the primary healthcare facilities in Tanzania, we can lower the under-five mortality rate, which now stands at 50.3 in 1000 live births, to 30 in 1000 live births in the next 10 years. This is a big promise we make and we are aware that there are other factors which we should take into consideration.

If there is anything that has been good to me throughout the journey so far, there is just one. I have learnt the entire process with the aid of facilitators and tools provided, on how to make a sound solution plan. It has been like going to school to take a masters in business and leadership, something I wanted to do long ago. In the pre-acceleration programme, we have been submitted to Potentialife programme. This was the major missing piece to me. What I have learnt and I continue to learn in the potentialife, has been the best thing to happen in my late 30s. So many thanks to Angus Ridgway and Tal Ben-Shahar for making such a powerful programme.

While we are waiting for the results to get to the next stage of UNLEASH+ 2020, the Online Bootacmp, I can confidently say that I can now see the challenge and make a clear solution plan with a sound business model. No doubt about that. No doubt at all. Thank you, Emmanuel, through you I have gained much more. Let's take the Newborn Thermal Control higher in reducing the number of deaths of neonates in our country and in the sub-Saharan region.