Wajamama
VP Grantee

Wajamama is a grassroot organization dedicated to making Holistic Health Care services accessible to women and girls of all socioeconomic backgrounds in Zanzibar, Tanzania. This organization was built on the belief that in order to create profound social change, we must create a nourishing and healthy environment from conception onward. Through various initiatives, this organization supports women’s holistic and reproductive health, healthy pregnancies, empowered birth experiences, and early childhood.

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Wajamama was established by Nafisa Jiddawi, a Family and Women's Health Nurse Practitioner and Certified Nurse Midwife, raised in Zanzibar. While pursuing her university studies in the US and volunteering for various healthcare initiatives in Zanzibar, Nafisa became aware of the number of avoidable maternal deaths in the country, as she also witnessed systemic mistreatment of birthing individuals and their infants. These experiences have become the driving force behind her fervent determination to enhance health outcomes in Zanzibar, alongside her unwavering dedication to preventive medicine.

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‘Wajamama’ stands for Watoto (children), Jamii (community), and Mama. It operates with the following initiatives:

• MCH – Maternal and Child Health initiative supporting the wellbeing of women and babies through pregnancy, birth, and early childhood.

• Reproductive Health initiative making preventive health care and health promotion services available for all.

• Nurse-Midwifery Workforce Development initiative equipping nurses with knowledge for safe and empowered care.

 

The Wajamama Wellness Center offers pediatric and primary care services for all. The center specializes in women’s health care services, such as gynecological, preconception, prenatal, and postpartum. It also offers the only Fitness and Yoga space in Zanzibar that is created by women for women. Wajamama’s disease prevention and health promotion program include workshops held at the Wellness Center, as well as in villages across Zanzibar, on topics such as menstrual health and hygiene, cervical and breast cancer awareness, prenatal care, pregnancy, childbirth, and nutrition.

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‘Wajamama’ has up to this day served thousands of members of the community in health services and women’s fitness programs; it has reached more than 1,000 women and girls in disease prevention and health promotion outreach activities; and it has supported more than 100 women from economically marginalized communities throughout their pregnancies and birth experiences.