Her Excellency, Mariam Mwinyi, First Lady of Zanzibar and Founder of the Zanzibar Maisha Bora Foundation, alongside WAJAMAMA CEO Nafisa Jiddawi and local mamas.
What a remarkable month September was. If you had told us a year ago what we’d accomplish in just four weeks, we wouldn’t have believed you. But here we are, looking back at a month filled with incredible events, meaningful collaborations, and progress towards our goals.
A central theme of this full and successful month has been tuning into narratives and storytelling – are we listening enough to who we are serving? Are we using this to better the services we provide?
Every mother has a story about the care she received during the antenatal period; so does every midwife, every community health worker, and every person working to make that care a little bit better.
In September, stories and conversations took us from Zanzibar to New York, Rwanda, mainland Tanzania, and all across our beautiful Zanzibar. Here is a little of what we've been learning and doing along the way, and three takeaways at the end we know you will enjoy.
Her Excellency, First Lady, Ms Mariam Mwinyi and WAJAMAMA Founder & CEO Nafisa Jiddawi share a high-five. How 2026 has been feeling recently!
The Mother's Voice on a Global Stage
One of our proudest moments this September was hosting Sauti ya Mama, meaning “The Mother's Voice” in Kiswahili, in New York on the sidelines of UNGA and Climate Week. Together with Zanzibar Magazine, we brought together influential voices in maternal health, philanthropy, and advocacy for an afternoon of meaningful dialogue, art, music, and storytelling.
The event featured several powerhouse speakers, representing voices from Tanzania and beyond:
Rosemary Kokuhilwa, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Zanzibar Magazine
Dr. Ellen Mkondya-Senkoro, CEO of the Benjamin Mkapa Foundation and Board of Trustees Representative for the Zanzibar Maisha Bora Foundation.
João Abreu, Co-Founder and Executive Director of ImpulsoGov
Isra Chaker, Founder and CEO of Every Pregnancy
Esther Wang, Executive Advisor for Organizational Strategy and Management Advisor at The Elevate Prize Foundation
Hon. Dr. Zeyana Hamid, Deputy Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Health & HIV/AIDS and IPU Delegate
Khadija Shariff, Executive Director of the Milele Zanzibar Foundation
Faisa Ali, Founder of Nuuma and CEO of Peapod Studio
The gathering marked the unveiling of Zanzibar Magazine's second volume, Her Blue Economy, featuring Zanzibar's First Lady, Her Excellency Mariam Mwinyi; the premiere of the film Rahma by Light Palmer; and the announcement of #MwanzoWake, a campaign developed with the Zanzibar Maisha Bora Foundation, with the First Lady's support, to improve maternal nutrition, promote early screening, and reduce the prevalence of anemia in Zanzibar. This truly was one for the books!
Rosemary Kokuhilwa and Nafisa Jiddawi unveil Volume 2 of Zanzibar Magazine, featuring Zanzibar's First Lady, at Sauti ya Mama in New York.
Centering the Mother’s Experience
Before the launch of #MwanzoWake in New York, we had the privilege of welcoming the First Lady of Zanzibar, Her Excellency Mariam Mwinyi, to WAJAMAMA for a conversation with expectant mothers, women who had recently given birth, nurse-midwives delivering our Group Care Model (GCM), community health workers, and WAJAMAMA staff.
Our GCM mamas spoke openly about their experiences receiving care in Zanzibar. One concern that came up was the need for more postpartum education and support–an example of a critical insight that clinical data alone cannot capture and will help us understand where we can channel our energies for tangible change as we move forward.
We are grateful to Her Excellency, Zanzibar's National Champion for Early Childhood Development, for listening to these experiences and for her continued commitment to maternal and child health.
Zanzibar's First Lady joins mothers at WAJAMAMA to hear firsthand experiences of maternal healthcare and what is needed in postpartum support.
Listening To Those in The Arena
Last month, we also brought together Community Health Workers (CHWs) from Chukwani and Bwejuu to learn more about their experiences delivering reproductive and child health services.
One of our biggest challenges we’ve encountered while beginning to scale GCM is the pressure on Zanzibar's existing healthcare workforce. Rather than building a parallel system, we are working to strengthen the one already in place.
By integrating CHWs into GCM, we aim to ease the burden on clinical teams, reduce waiting times, and bring essential perinatal services together in one setting. Listening to healthcare workers helps us understand how to adapt the model to the realities of each facility, while improving mothers' experiences of care.
Community Health Workers from Chukwani and Bwejuu gather at WAJAMAMA to discuss their integration into the Group Care Model.
A Partnership for Midwifery’s Future
September also marked the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Tanzania Midwives Association (TAMA). This partnership will support midwifery education, training, knowledge exchange, and the advancement of midwifery-led care across Tanzania.
Our agreement establishes a shared framework for ongoing collaboration, grounded in a commitment to centering mothers' experiences, listening to and applying what we learn, and strengthening trust between our organizations and the trust mothers place in the healthcare system that serves them.
WAJAMAMA and the Tanzania Midwives Association mark the signing of an MOU to continue to improve midwifery education and care across Tanzania.
Our Team, Proudly Representing the Mission
Throughout the month, our team represented WAJAMAMA across several important health forums, sharing experiences and bringing new perspectives back into our work.
Africa HealthTech Summit | Kigali: Yusra Haji, WAJAMAMA Clinical Mentor, and Zanzibar's Principal Secretary for Health, Dr. Mngereza Mzee Miraji, attended this innovative conference with Nafisa to explore how other organizations and governments are integrating technology and innovation into healthcare. Yusra and Dr. Miraji also spoke on a panel, hosted by Noora Health, about how family caregiving can drive better health outcomes.
GCM Curriculum Review | Zanzibar: We brought the Ministry of Health and frontline healthcare workers together to review GCM’s clinical content and facilitation methods to ensure the curriculum reflects Zanzibar’s healthcare realities and continues to prioritize long-term sustainability.
WAJAMAMA's Yusra Ameir Haji (second right) joins Zanzibar's Principal Secretary for Health, Dr. Mngereza Mzee Miraji (second left), on stage at the Africa HealthTech Summit in Kigali.
Our Three Takeaways From This Past Month
Lesson 1: Better care starts with asking better questions, but it is often more important to listen. Patient experience matters alongside clinical outcomes.
Lesson 2: Scaling care doesn't always mean adding more resources, just as scale does not always equal growth. Improving how existing healthcare workers share responsibilities can be as beneficial as increasing staffing; this will form a sustainable part of systemic change.
Lesson 3: Evidence tells us what works, but listening helps us understand how to make it work elsewhere. To create a flexible model that works across different facilities, we must continuously adapt to the available resources and never assume that one size fits all.
The Story We Continue to Write
Each story shared within this newsletter had a lesson that helps us improve our work.
We are grateful for our partnership with the Zanzibar Ministry of Health on this journey, whose continued collaboration is central to strengthening existing healthcare systems, building the capacity of healthcare teams, and supporting the sustainable expansion of our Group Care Model.
Above all, we want every mother to feel welcomed, respected, informed, and confident in her experience of maternal care, and equally as important is ensuring that frontline healthcare providers feel skilled, supported, and confident in their ability to provide excellent care.
Thank you for being part of our story.
With love and light,
The WAJAMAMA Team