Medical Aid Films – Supporting Health Training and Education

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Hi all,
Have just signed up to TGHN and thought I would introduce Medical Aid Films:
 
Medical Aid Films aims to put an end to preventable deaths by providing a simple, scalable intervention: health education through film.
 
Since 2007 Medical Aid Films has been producing and distributing free films for training and education for frontline healthworkers in low resource areas of the world on topics of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.
 
Our mission is to save the lives of women and children through ensuring that those in need have access to vital health information and training resources.
 
We have 34 films, covering life-saving topics such as emergency obstetric care and nutrition in pregnancy, used by over 1,200 individuals and organisations in 80 countries worldwide.
 
All of our films are available at http://medicalaidfilms.org/our-films/
 
HISTORY:
In 2006, midwife Fiona Laird was working in a refugee camp in Darfur with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). She saw mothers and babies dying everyday, often for reasons that were preventable even in the under-resourced camp. Fiona decided to organise a training session, covering the basics of safe-delivery, hygiene and newborn care. With over 1,000 people turning up, it was clear that demand was huge, but with few resources and barriers of language and literacy, it proved to be unsustainable.
On her return to the UK, Fiona spoke with two colleagues, Professor Eric Jauniaux and Dr Natalie Greenwold, both experts in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology. They believed that film could provide the answer to the problem Fiona faced. In 2007, Medical Aid Films (MAF) was born. Since then, the organization has produced 34 life-saving films that are being used by over 1,200 partners in 80 countries around the world.
 
FILM
Film allows us to present complex information in a clear, engaging way, and helps the audience to remember what they’ve learned. In settings where literacy rates are low, film makes learning accessible to all. It is also highly cost-effective, and therefore scalable and sustainable; our films are free, can be watched again and again, and shared an unlimited number of times.
We produce and distribute best practice, medically accurate and resource appropriate health education through films to skilled health workers, community health workers and communities. We work with health organisations and community projects, building capacity and strengthening health systems from within. Working in this way, we avoid wasting resources or replicating the work of others; we try to ensure our work complements and facilitates the work of others, ultimately providing a better, more wide-spread service.We produce films aimed at all skill levels, because improving knowledge and understanding among ordinary people is just as important as providing quality training for health workers. Through gathering feedback from our partners on the ground, we can be sure that we’re providing films that respond directly to the needs of our audiences.
We aim to make our films accessible in terms of language as well as content. We’ve already produced films in six languages, and we’re working towards translating our suite for different audiences across the developing world.
 
The topics we cover are often requested by our partners, so we know that every film we make is of vital importance. Some of the most popular among our partners are:Newborn care: the first hours after delivery – showing warning signs in newbornsNeonatal resuscitationBreastfeedingManual removal of the placentaHow to use a partographFocused Antenatal Care10 steps to a clean delivery
These films, along with the rest of our suite, cover care of the newborn and care of the mother, because one cannot be separated from the other. Of all child deaths worldwide, 44% occur in the first month of life; and 75% of these in the first week. Poor maternal health or lack of care during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period lead to the majority of infant deaths.
We know our films change lives, but there is so much more to do. Over the next three years, we aim to:

• Develop our film library - Next topics in production include Sexual and Reproductive Health, Women’s Rights in Healthcare and continuing to build our obstetric and safe delivery films


• Culturally adapt and translate our films – Currently, we are adapting a sample of our films for South East Asia due in August 2014


• Harness the power of e-learning and mobile technology – Film lends itself perfectly in support of these ventures


• Collaborate and partner - Improving our reach as well as our product is paramount to achieving our goals