Davina Field- Marsham creates a huge impact with her project

Davina-Field Marsham in the centre holding a baby wrapped in a purple blanket
KENYA - Most teenagers go to malls to pass time but  Davina Field- Marsham is no ordinary teenager . At just 16 she has created, Do right, a project that sells non-profit stylish bracelets at malls in Kenya and Canada.

The non- profit organisation sells bracelets with a purpose of using its profits to encourage women to visit clinics during pregnancy. She also provides women with postnatal care bundles that contain nappies, blankets, soap and a pamphlet that provides more information about the post natal period with an aim to reduce maternal and neonatal morbidity. The bracelets are made at Langata women's Maximum prison by trained women prisoners.When the bracelets are sold they get paid in salary which is sent to their  families.

I met Davina on a Sunday afternoon at Yaya centre. She had positive energy which attracted people towards her table to find out more about her project . As I sat down next to her table she explained to me about what motivated her to launch Do right while her friends were selling the bracelets.

Her mother has Kenyan and Dutch origins and her father is Canadian. Davina grew up in Kenya but now lives in Canada.

"This idea has been with me since I was a child; as a Canadian born to a Kenyan mother, I know how much of a backbone Kenyan mothers are to their children’s future success."She said.

Davina said that she has witnessed Kenyan women risk their newborn’s and their own life in Northern Kenya because they have no access to postnatal natal care or information.

Last year, during her school project, she chose to focus on maternal health in Kenya. Growing up as child she used to help out in clinics because she was naturally drawn towards maternal wards.

She said "for a grade 10 school project, “I explored ways to rectify this burden of poor maternal health on rural women and created the DoRight postnatal bag and its educational pamphlet that I successfully tested in a few clinics in Kenya." 

Her  supervisor and math teacher encouraged her to create the project by building the Do Right project for women to deliver in hospitals.T he biggest maternal health challenge that women from  Northern Kenya face is  mothers not  giving birth in clinics and preferring  to give birth  at home.

"I really wanted to find a way to start a movement that encourages women to choose clinics over home births so that they can get more information about how to take care of themselves after giving birth".

Currently the packages are distributed in three clinics in Isiolo , Rift valley and a clinic in Lamu.

The profit goes towards the packages; she also has a lot of support from people in Canada and Kenya who have volunteered their time to sell the bracelets.

"It has been a nice experience, I am just so happy how well it is going so far."Being from both Canada and Kenya and living in both places inspired me to start this project”. She said.

According to Davina,  if you find something that you are passionate about , and you can correlate to other people and it makes an impact in other peoples lives , then you should pursue that because giving back is very important.

The Challenges that she has faced is living Canada  as a  student and trying to co-ordinate the project .She still has another year in school , living in Canada  difficult because of coordinating  everything  down to the smallest thing like buying the packages  and  transporting the packages to the clinics. The time zone has been challenging as well." I am very fortunate as I said before, I have such amazing people in Kenya and everyone has been helping me so much with the process". She added.

According to DO right's website only 38% of women in rural Kenya give birth in medical facilities however 90%, bring their newborns in for routine vaccinations.

The factors that lead women to home births include cultural, barriers, shame and the high costs of hospitals.

Women die at home due to lack of health information and medical products, The site adds that 1,200 / 100,000 women in Kenya's rural areas die in labor each year. This is more than double the national average

She sells her bracelets at malls in order to reach as many people as she can. Her future includes selling bracelets in stores but for now  you can get her bracelets at https://doright.ca/.