ECO-MAMA Innovator Wins 2024 Marc Mitchell Scholarship for Global Digital Health Forum
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By Lara Henneman, TechChange Special Projects and Storytelling
Growing up hours from the nearest hospital in rural Rwanda, Joie Sophia Umuhoza saw first-hand how difficult it was for women and girls to get medical care, and the dangerous consequences that this lack of access posed for their physical and mental wellbeing. Rather than be discouraged, Umuhoza began to study digital health and became excited about the possibilities the field held for her community and others like it. Impressively, the university student has already translated that education into action, founding ECO-MAMA, a mental health digital platform aimed at helping women in Rwanda and beyond to overcome the psychological impact of climate change. Thanks to support from TechChange partner D-tree, Umuhoza is headed to the 2024 Global Digital Health Forum in Nairobi, and will also receive a year of professional mentorship through the Global Digital Health Network.
Marc Mitchell Award supports next generation of leaders
Umuhoza is one of two winners of the Marc Mitchell Leadership and Innovation Award, in memoriam of the Harvard pediatrician and digital health pioneer who founded D-tree in 2004. Dr. Mitchell’s groundbreaking work in over 40 countries from Papua New Guinea to Mexico was guided by his passionate belief that all people everywhere should have access to high-quality healthcare, and the award in his honor is now given annually to young professionals who exemplify that principle in action. The award is increasingly competitive–in 2024, more than 250 applications were received, and Umuhoza’s entry rose to the top.
A problem solver with a unique set of skills and experiences including product design training and volunteer work on youth mental health, Umuhoza created a digital platform that utilizes the AI-driven mental health assessment to identify early signs of anxiety, and depression among its female users. The ECO-MAMA initiative then provides localized mental health education and stress management techniques to those with climate-induced mental health challenges. The Women Warriors program equips young women to become advocates for mental health resilience in their own communities, and teaches skills of community resilience planning. These programs not only help to reduce barriers to mental health care, but also build capacity through digital health applications, just like Dr. Mitchell’s vision for the potential of technology to create lasting change.
When asked how the mentorship through the GDHN would help to support her work, Umuhoza shared that this would be “the catalyst needed to scale my impact on women facing the dual crisis of climate change and mental health. It’s an opportunity to turn my vision into reality…to collaborate with global digital health leaders, and gain insight on new innovative technologies and the best practices for scaling health interventions.” Her target over the next five years is to reduce the treatment gap in low-income countries like Rwanda by improving tech-driven interventions in underserved communities, and Umuhoza plans to continue to engage in research and policy advocacy to address the systematic barriers in mental health care.
Join the award winners at GDHF 2024, Dec 4-6
The Global Digital Health Forum is the world’s leading global public health industry networking and relationship-building opportunity for technology vendors, donors, researchers, government representatives, and implementing organizations working in low- and middle-income countries. When asked what she was most excited to share with other conference attendees, Umuhoza emphasized “the need for interdisciplinary collaboration in the digital health system, and bringing together experts from diverse backgrounds such as technology, social sciences and more to create comprehensive solutions.”
One thing we’ve learned in our years of organizing this conference–at GDHF, valuable expertise comes not only from the upper echelons of people who have been working in the field for decades, but also from rising innovators and social entrepreneurs like Joie Sophia Umuhoza, Marc Mitchell Scholarship winner for this year’s conference.
