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By co-founding MTTS, Nga Tuyet Trang is bringing life-saving technology to Vietnamese hospitals, allowing them to reduce infant mortality.
Nga Tuyet Trang grew up in post-war Vietnam, where there was a shortage of everything, including healthcare. She wanted to make things better, and though she had ideas, she had no resources.
When she got a scholarship to study in Denmark, she took it. She came back to Vietnam, and started working in Hanoi, for a U.S.-based medical organization in Hanoi that connected local doctors and foreign health care equipment designers. As part of her job, she often visited hospitals, and the huge gap between Denmark and Vietnam in the quality of the facilities and healthcare bothered her.
One day she witnessed the heartbreaking sight of a newborn baby dying, because it could not breathe. Its life could have easily been saved, if the hospital had the right equipment. Nga Tuyet Trang made it her life’s work to make sure that such tragedies no longer happen.
She set up MTTS (Medical Technology Transfer and Services ) along with a few friends, in partnership with California based East Meets West Foundation, that helped with the R&D. MTTS designs, manufactures and distributes appropriate medical equipment for neonatal intensive care, especially for low resource settings, like Vietnamese hospitals.
Many people tried to stop her. “Everybody kept saying that nothing could be done without the money. Denmark is the way it is because they are rich, they were pointing out. Well, we have to start somewhere, I replied,” she says.
The machines MTTS makes are revolutionary because they are low cost, designed specifically to be used in places that do not have many resources and can be easily operated even without much training. This is achieved in the following ways:
A news report (watch video below) shows just how much impact these machines have had. As of 2017, MTTS had delivered over 3,200 devices, and has saved the lives of 1.4 million babies, including 105,000 in 2017 alone.
For this truly inspiring work, MTTS and Trang were awarded “Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2017” by Schwab Foundation.
According to recent statistics by WHO, 6.3 million children under the age of 15 years died in 2017. 5.4 million of them were under the age of 5 and 2.5 million of those children died within the first month of life. Most of these deaths are caused by lack of access to simple, affordable interventions. Through MTTS, Nga Tuyet Trang is making a difference, one child and one machine at a time.
The theme of International Women’s Day, 2019, which falls on March 8th, is “Think equal, build smart, innovate for change”. #IWD2019
With women still a minority in science, technology & related innovation, it’s time to shine a spotlight on female innovation champions! Enjoy our Women Innovators Around The World series, where we profile 19 inspiring women innovators, from 19 countries, whose work has a big social impact.
Want to know what other innovations women around the world have pioneered? Read about Yanina Taneva here.
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People say that women are the greatest enemies of women. I vehemently disagree. It is the patriarchal mindset that makes women believe in the wrong ideology.
The entire world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024. It should be a joyful day, but unfortunately, not all women are entitled to this privilege, as violence against women is at its peak. The experience of oppression pushes many women to choose freedom. As far as patriotism is concerned, feminism is not a cup of tea in this society.
What happens when a woman decides to stand up for herself? Does this world easily accept the decisions of women in this society? What inspires them to be free of the clutches of the oppression that women have faced for ages? Most of the time, women do not get the chance to decide for themselves. Their lives are always at the mercy of someone, which can be their parents, siblings, husband, or children.
In some cases, women do not feel the need to make any decisions. They are taught to obey the patriarchal system, which makes them believe that they are right. In my family, I was never taught to make decisions on my own. It was always my parents who bought dresses and all that I needed.
14 years after her last feature film Dhobi Ghat, storyteller extraordinaire comes up with her new film, Laapataa Ladies, a must watch.
*Some spoilers alert*
Every religion around the world dictates terms to women. The onus is always on women to be ‘modest’ and cover their faces and bodies so men can’t be “tempted”, rather than on men to keep their eyes where they belong and behave like civilized beings. So much so that even rape has been excused on the grounds of women eating chowmein or ‘men will be men’. I think the best Hindi movie retort to this unwanted advice on ‘akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai’ (an alone woman is like an open jewellery box) came from Geet in Jab We Met – Kya aap gyan dene ke paise lete hain kyonki chillar nahin hain mere paas.
The premise of Laapataa Ladies is beautifully simple – two brides clad in the ghunghat that covers their identity get mixed up on a train. Within this Russian Doll, you get a comedy of errors, a story of getting lost, a commentary on patriarchy’s attitude towards women, a mystery, and a tale of finding oneself, all in one. Done with a mostly light touch that has you laughing and nodding along.
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