Mama Salama — an offline Swahili companion for maternal & newborn safety

The problem

In Tanzania the maternal mortality ratio is 104 deaths per 100,000 live births, and newborn mortality is 24 per 1,000 (TDHS-MIS 2022). Crucially, close to half of maternal deaths happen after the first day; in the days and weeks after birth, when the mother is home and out of reach of the health system. Postnatal-care coverage is low and most rural mothers never return for a check. At home, she often cannot tell whether bleeding, fever, a bad headache, or a baby who won't feed is normal or dangerous, and with about 70% of the population rural and far from emergency care, that delay can be fatal.

What we're building

Mama Salama ("Safe Mother") is a Swahili, offline phone companion. In the first three to four weeks after delivery, a mother uses it to check her own and her baby's danger signs, so a dangerous complication is caught early and she is guided to seek care in time.

The design is offline-first on purpose. Rural Tanzania has weak networks, power cuts, and costly data, but danger signs don't wait for a signal, often striking in the middle of the night. So the clinical logic and the Swahili language understanding live on the phone itself: it answers instantly, runs on a cheap device the family already owns, keeps her information private, and when a situation is unclear it errs toward "seek care."

My role & the team

I'm the team lead. Mama Salama is a deliberately mixed, two-university team of six: four data scientists from NM-AIST bringing the engineering, and two pharmacists from MUHAS keeping the clinical content grounded and correct.

Where it stands

Selected among the top 10 teams and building toward the grand finale.

Evidence

• Buildathon announcement — LinkedIn
• Top-10 selection — LinkedIn