Doris Mollel
Saving the ‘njiti’ Doris Mollel weighed only 900 grams when she was born. It was doubtful she would survive let alone go on to become a beauty queen, work with the Tanzanian government and the United Nations and set up a foundation in her name that would save the lives of thousands of premature babies like her. Mark Edwards meets this inspirational woman.
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ursuing charity work was a large part of Doris Mollel’s life as a beauty queen, but the winner of five crowns in Tanzania and a Miss Universe second runner-up was not prepared for the impact volunteering at a clinic for premature babies would have. “I was supposed to spend an hour there, but I ended up staying all day,” she says. “I was in tears seeing babies smaller than mobile phones full of syringes giving them blood and nutrients.” When she relayed the emotional experience to her mother, Doris was in for another shock. Her mother revealed that Doris had also been a ‘njiti’ – the Swahili nickname for a premature baby, which translates as ‘matchstick’ – weighing in at just 900 grams when she was born.
set up the Doris Mollel Foundation to ensure more was done to care for these tiny, acutely vulnerable creatures. This was in March 2015. In the years to come the foundation made huge strides in addressing the risk factors in Tanzanian society that contribute to the high number of preterm births and the insufficiency of medical facilities to cope with those numbers.
Raising awareness
Doris had always been grateful for the opportunities life had given her – the jet-setting life of a beauty queen and education to a masters level – but her mother’s revelation made her realise how lucky she was just to be alive. Being born prematurely in Tanzania is the leading cause of death in children of five years and under, being linked to 40 per cent of total deaths. The njiti had lit a fire in Doris.
Dealing with what Doris calls the “knowledge gap” has been fundamental to the foundation’s work. To reduce the numbers of preterm births, Doris and her team have set about raising awareness of contributing factors such as girls becoming pregnant in their teens, a short time (less than 18 months) between pregnancies and mumsto-be not eating healthily or staying hydrated during their pregnancy. At outreach visits and advocacy groups for parents they also spread the word on how the vast majority of deaths of preterm babies are avoidable, sharing techniques such as kangaroo care – the practice of skin-on-skin contact between infant and parent – which have been shown to reduce mortality. Help getting the message out there has come through partnerships
She decided to take a stand and
with media outlets such as ITV
Lucky to be alive
Doris Mollel outside Mvumi Hospital, which now has a prenatal clinic thanks to her foundation
and through telecom companies to send health advice via SMS to those without internet access. The foundation even released a documentary, ‘Njiti’, detailing the scope of the problem in Tanzania, which had its big screen premiere at the 2018 Zanzibar International Film Festival. The life chances of a preterm baby are highly dependent on the level of care available at hospitals during labour, delivery and the first week of life. Specialist prenatal
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