A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) says that Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest number of Maternal Deaths per 100,000 live births adding that Sierra Leone leads the pack with an estimated 1,100 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Meanwhile, for child mortality, the WHO says that the risk of a child dying before completing 5 years of age in Africa, is one of the highest in the world. It is an average of  81 deaths per 1000 live births.

This was why  AMREF Health Africa in collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Nailab introduced the Innovate For Life Hackathon to help curb the Maternal and child mortality rates in Africa and across the globe.

Innovative solutions were submitted by techpreneurs, midwives, doctors, and entrepreneurs among others from across the continent.

At the expiration of the deadline for submission of entries, a total of 117 pitches were received and 15 entries were selected after a rigorous vetting process.

The selected 15 were further pruned to three at a two-day hackathon held between 7th and 8th of March at the Amref Health Africa Headquarters in Nairobi. The three were declared winners of the hackathon. They are Chanjo Plus from Kenya, Wekebere from Uganda and HelpMum from Nigeria.

These startups will now go through an acceleration program in their countries of operation, which will be coordinated by Nailab. In addition to this, winners will work with mentors, receive training and coaching on different business support services as well as have access to 300,000 Kenyan Shilling seed capital.