Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

We at CHMI were thrilled to get the news about Catapult, a new fundraising platform launched today that focuses on strengthening and scaling up projects benefiting the lives of women and girls worldwide. We frequently write about maternal and child health organizations working to improve the market for health services, and we profile more than 220 programs and policies with this critical focus. Here's the announcement from Catapult and their partners about the new site.

Today, on International Day of the Girl Child, global advocacy organization Women Deliver launched Catapult, the first online funding platform dedicated to advancing the lives of girls and women worldwide. By partnering with trusted organizations and connecting them with a new online audience, Catapult provides a call to action to help bring an end to gender inequality.

Girls’ and women’s organizations are chronically underfunded, despite their key role in addressing inequality. One-fifth of all women’s organizations report the threat of closure, and only two cents of every development dollar goes toward adolescent girls. Investing in girls and women strengthens families, communities and nations.

Harnessing the power of social networks, Catapult is a digital hub driving donations to organizations working to improve the lives of girls and women.

Watch a video on how Catapult works here.

Then check out an interesting project focused on improving maternal health care in Bolivia:

Along the rivers of the Bolivian lowlands, many pregnant women have little or no access to basic reproductive health services. In Bolivia, the country with the highest maternal mortality rate in South America, even the most common childbirth complications can turn fatal. In these remote communities, nearly two-thirds of all maternal deaths occur at home, or as the woman makes the long and difficult journey to a health facility. When the rivers flood in the wet season, traveling quickly to the clinics becomes almost impossible and women die from complications as they try to get to emergency care.

To address this barrier, Family Care International (FCI) is working with local health authorities and women’s groups to equip a maternity waiting home, near the regional hospital in the town of Puerto Rico, in the Pando Region of Bolivia. Pregnant women and their families will be able to stay at the home in the days and weeks before going into labor to ensure that they will be near the hospital before giving birth. Once it is equipped, the home will be available to 1,000 women of reproductive age and their families in the area. The maternity waiting home will be especially crucial for women giving birth in the wet season, when traveling to the hospital is the most difficult.

When you donate to this project, the money will go directly to buying the equipment for the maternity waiting home, including beds, fully equipped kitchens and other culturally appropriate supplies needed to make the women and families feel comfortable. For many pregnant Bolivian women, getting to a healthcare facility often means the difference between life and death. Ensuring access to the hospital is a huge step in the fight to reduce maternal mortality in the region.

Developed at Women Deliver, and funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Catapult is working with a variety of partners both large and small, including the Global Fund for Women, the United Nations Population Fund, IPPF, the Akilah Institute for Women and One-Heart World-Wide.

Learn more about how to launch your change for girls and women at www.catapult.org, and join them on Facebook and Twitter: @wecatapult.