One Heart and MAF worked in partnership with the National Health Education Information and Communication Center of the Government of Nepal to develop a series of short educational maternal and newborn health films specifically adapted to the socio-cultural and healthcare delivery context of rural Nepal. We subsequently conducted a study to assess whether viewing these films had a positive impact on the maternal and newborn health knowledge levels among pregnant women, and the postpartum hemorrhage–related knowledge levels among Female Community Health Volunteers in rural Nepal. Our results clearly demonstrated that using these culturally adapted educational films was indeed an effective intervention to improve maternal and newborn health knowledge among these rural populations. We are excited to share that the results of our work were recently published in Women’s Health (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/17455057221104297).

In collaboration with the Family Welfare Division of the Government of Nepal, One Heart designed a Simulation-Based Mentorship Program (SBMP) for rural health providers in Nepal. The SBMP is a hands-on workstation-based coaching and mentoring program. Local level mentors provide short doses of regular demonstrations and drills to rural health providers, which has been proven to increase information and skill retention. Implementation is on-going in the districts of Sarlahi and Myagdi. One Heart trained 7 new mentors and set up 3 skill labs this quarter. We also completed pre-assessments for 12 new sites in Sarlahi and 8 sites in Myagdi. We successfully ran 56 monthly SBMP sessions this past quarter (12 in Udayapur, 13 in Dolakha, 16 in Sarlahi, and 15 in Myagdi). Additionally, our team just completed the data collection of the midline evaluation in 32 sites in Udayapur.

This evaluation aims to assess how our programs have impacted the lives of women and newborns. Additionally, this evaluation seeks to address questions concerning medium and long-term sustainability, replicability, and areas where our programs could be adapted or re-imagined to best meet the needs in Nepal and other countries in need. The data for phase 1 has been fully cleaned up and reviewed. Preliminary descriptive data analyses have been conducted on the quantitative data. The qualitative data collected during phase 1 has been coded, and a thematic analysis was conducted. The Dartmouth team presented their preliminary findings in a phase 1 report. The research team is now preparing for phase 2 of the project. The plan is to start the data collection process once the monsoon concludes (fall 2022). A two-person team from Kathmandu will be deployed in the four districts of Sankhuwasabha, Dhading, Baglung, and Pyuthan. Each team will be supported by a local enumerator hired to assist with the survey. The teams will spend two months at each site. We expect data collection to be completed before the end of Q4 2022.

Earlier this year, One Heart contracted a third-party research agency in Nepal (MITRA SAMAJ) to conduct an endline survey in Dhading. This survey was conducted among women who gave birth within the last 12 months to assess the changes in our program indicators post program completion. All of the data has now been collected and is currently being reviewed and analyzed. As part of the analysis, MITRA SAMAJ will compare the endline results to the baseline data that was collected for OHW in 2014 before the start of our programs in Dhading. We expect the final report to be ready by the end of Q3.