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.

Pursuing 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.

Lucky to be alive

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. She decided to take a stand and 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

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 with media outlets such as ITV 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 equipment has previously been prohibitively expensive for many hospitals here, but the Doris Mollel Foundation has been able to donate vital apparatus such as oxygen providers and baby warmers to 40 previously under-resourced hospitals across Tanzania. As a result, 14 of those hospitals now have their first dedicated prenatal units. The foundation has also organised the training of nursing staff for these units.

Building a voice

The foundation’s work has been transformational. “We estimate that we have saved the lives of more than 12,000 babies since we began,” says Doris. She credits the scale of the impact the foundation has had on the support of high-profile partners such as Vodacom and the Tanzanian government, which recognised the importance of Doris’ work from the start.

“When we started out as an NGO, we didn’t have much of a voice,” she says, “but the Ministry of Health has reacted so positively to what we do. One of our first fundraising events was a marathon in 2015 and it inspired the Ministry to organise its own charity walk to raise funds for the same cause. We became a natural team and have worked together ever since.”

Vodacom was the foundation’s first donor with Tanzania’s leading cellular network company supporting Doris in delivering Ramadan food parcels to those in need. It’s an initiative she continues to this day – one that has recently been especially welcome to those unable to leave their homes during the pandemic – and Vodacom is still a key sponsor of the foundation’s work.

Along with the big-name backing, Doris has built a 10-strong team around her at the foundation, who, she says, are united in “passion” for the cause. Still, the 27-year-old is its driving force. She is there leading the outreach programmes and community gatherings, visiting the hospitals and meeting the babies and the parents.

She continues to further her education to help her broaden the impact of the foundation beyond Tanzania’s borders. Currently she is studying for a masters in strategic management at the Centre for Foreign Relations in Dar es Salaam – once completed, it will become the fourth degree she has earned – to help in her work with international organisations. It has come in useful dealing with the United Nations, which the foundation has been working with recently on a programme to safeguard girls under the age of one from genital mutilation as well as a programme to keep students in secondary school. Doris says she is also pressing the UN to add a World Prematurity Day to its annual calendar of awareness events.

Doris with the mother of a baby born prematurely at Mvumi Hospital

Role model

Doris is living proof that a premature baby’s tough journey to a healthy, rewarding life is worth it. The beauty queen also raises the example of Tanzania’s former minister of mining, Angela Kairuki, another njiti, and history is full of notable people who were born prematurely such as physicists Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton and musician Stevie Wonder.

When Doris visits mothers of premature babies in hospital she likes to tell them: “Your child will be more than me.”

Doris attends many outreach events with the foundation

These words are a vital source of hope to mothers at a challenging time, but while the foundation has given thousands the gift of life, Doris knows there is much more to be done. The latest figures show that in 2019 in Tanzania, 236,000 babies were born before 37 weeks of gestation and 13,000 of those children died before they reached the age of five due to complications connected to their preterm birth. Doris was moved to tears by the plight of the njiti when she first visited a clinic all those years ago and though she has made countless visits to hospitals and clinics since, it can still be a heart-breaking experience. She can’t save them all.

“It’s very torturing, very draining. My tears will always fall. I have met mothers who tell me their husbands won’t visit them in hospital because they say the birth is a curse and have seen so many cases of mothers who get rid of their premature babies. Still, I believe there is a purpose and I have to be strong.”

The foundation continues to do all it can to ensure there is a wide environment of support for premature babies and their families. Care for preterms is expensive, especially if prolonged treatment is required, but it is currently not covered by insurance companies in Tanzania. Doris is campaigning to change this.

She is also making progress in persuading the government to increase the statutory leave awarded to parents of preterm babies. Speaking to me at the start of April, Doris said her campaign for the minimum leave for mothers to be raised from three months to six months and for fathers from 3 days to three months was currently being debated by government committee. Should her request be made into law, Doris says it will ease some of the financial pressure and allow parents to be more involved in their baby’s care.

Donations

Such widespread changes in attitudes towards premature births requires, Doris says, “everyone having a role to play. From the mother taking precautions during pregnancy to partners and institutions like the government and insurers helping out should the baby be born premature. There needs to be an environment there to help.”

Anybody can lend a hand. If individuals would like to make a donation to its work the Doris Mollel Foundation Instagram page has a collection number. Adonation of just TSH 500 is enoughfor the foundation to buy a feedingtube to help a preterm baby toosick to breast feed.

History is full of notable people who were born prematurely such as physicists Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton and musician Stevie Wonder

Certainly, Doris will continue todo all and more that is expected ofher. Big plans for the future includethe foundation getting its ownprenatal clinic in Dar es Salaam,which will also become the hubof its fundraising operations. Forsomeone who came into this worldat just 900 grams, Doris now feelsthe weight of responsibility to makea real difference in the world. “Iwant to use this power,” she says.

To find out more about the DorisMollel Foundation or to make adonation, visit its Instagram page at@dorismollelfoundation

The Doris Mollel Foundation has provided vital apparatus to hospitals

PRETERM BIRTHS AND DEATHS

11% Pre term birth rate (babies born <37 weeks)

8% Low birth weight rate (babies born <2,500g)

236,000 Babies born preterm per year

1.18 Ratio of boys to girls born preterm

11,100 Babies born per year <28 weeks

5,700 Impaired preterm survivors per year

11,500 Direct preterm child deaths per year