Containers2Clinics launched: modular, recycled health centers for mothers

A maternal health professional may look inside a midwifery kit or to a list of essential drugs for the keys to saving mothers' lives.  One social entrepreneur has a different vision.  

I have long been intrigued by shipping containers--seeing them stacked in neat, rusty rows in ports around the world.  As the 50 year anniversary of the container passed and books like The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger were published, Elizabeth Sheehan saw these boxes of metal as something different-- a vessel and a space for providing primary health care to women.  With her NGO Containers2Clinics she is creating a model for modular, recycled health care facilities.  The first pilot is in In January 2010, C2C’s pilot clinic will be launched in the town of Baní in the Dominican Republic. 

Elizabeth Sheehan writes:

While working overseas, I saw too many women and children suffer or die from the absence of even the most simply staffed and supplied health facility. I learned that the critical issue in international health was not about treatment but about access, that health care delivery was the roadblock to saving millions of mothers and children in rural areas around the world. And, once back in the U.S., I was intrigued by the green building movement that was pioneering new uses for recycled materials.

The C2C mission includes the following:

• To arrest the cycle of maternal and child morbidity and mortality through community-based health services
• To provide low-cost, high-quality, accessible primary health care solutions to vulnerable, underserved people
• To treat illness locally by training and hiring local medical professionals
• To utilize recycled materials to meet an urgent public health need for women and children

C2C is partnering with Infante Sano which builds “centers of excellence” by training local healthcare staff, procuring equipment and facility upgrades, building the skills of on-site master trainers and engaging community leaders to ensure the sustainability and local ownership of healthcare system improvements. 

As part of Maternova's focus beyond clinical aspects of maternal health, we will continue to focus on truly revolutionary ideas that address the spaces and places where maternal care is provided.