There is a certain hard-nosed resilience that comes with being a female entrepreneur in the medical space. Dr Esperance Luvindao had many hurdles and naysayers in her journey but is working to ensure quality healthcare actually reaches everyone.



“Well, I am no longer under 30,” Dr Esperance Luvindao laughs on the Zoom call with FORBES AFRICA.



For years, even before she made the FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 list in 2022, this Namibian medical professional has been working on solutions aimed at assisting patients throughout Africa’s semi-rural areas and suburbs to gain access to prescribed medication without having to travel long distances or suffer out-of-pocket health costs through conventional modes.



The <a href="https://healthpolicy-watch.news/only-half-of-africans-have-access-to-health-care/#:~:text=Less%20than%20half%20of%20Africa's,women%20and%20girls%20are%20unmet." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Health Policy Watch</a> estimated in 2021 that just over 50% (about 615 million) of people on the continent have access to the healthcare they need. The report further noted that “the continent’s quality of health services is generally poor and the family planning needs of half the continent’s women and girls are unmet”.



In a fact sheet released by the <a href="https://files.aho.afro.who.int/afahobckpcontainer/production/files/Health-for-all_Regional_Factsheet.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">World Health Organization</a> (WHO), there were only 3,894 health training institutions in Africa in 2018, of which 2,128 (55%) were owned by the public sector, 1,351 (35%) by private for-profit sector entities and 415 (11%) by private not-for-profit entities. The sheet went on to state that there is still “much work” that needs to be done to get countries to a point where they achieve universal health coverage (UHC) and access to quality healthcare.


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This is why Luvindao plans to launch her innovation MENGA, a digital health solution.



With the idea of releasing the burden of state hospitals by reducing queues, her biggest challenge has been legislation. To fully release MENGA to the public in Namibia, Luvindao says there needs to be forward-thinking legislation on telemedicine in the country.



“On the patient end, you don&#8217;t need internet connectivity for this, which sets us (her health solution) apart,” Luvindao says.



“I think about two years ago, I did a TED Talk exactly on this model, and I said, ‘what if you could consult your doctor without even using the internet, [with] using a messaging system or USSD code’. We built this model around meeting people at their point of need because a lot of patients in informal settlements or semi-rural areas do not have access to the internet.”



What also inspired Luvindao to venture into digital healthcare was her experience with patients around their sexual reproductive health.



“Every single time, we went and did outreach for our copper IUCD (intrauterine contraceptive device) clinics, we had to use an interpreter to explain that a copper IUCD has a string or it does not have any hormones. And oftentimes, I figured that there&#8217;s no word for hormone or progesterone in a lot of these African languages.”



On the continent, according to WHO, contraceptive use is low – 2020 WHO data showed that only 56.3% of women living in a relationship or married used modern methods for family planning, compared to more than 75%, on average, in the rest of the world. Despite the increase in contraceptive use over the past 30 years, many women (43.7%) on the continent still do not have access to modern contraceptive methods.



“So, I said ‘this is where we have to start’,” Luvindao adds. “We need to start educating people in a language that they understand. Otherwise, we&#8217;re just trying to soothe ourselves again. So, we started translating our material into native languages.”



Although this has been a journey that has sometimes been challenging for the young doctor, her mission has remained steadfast and strong.



“It sounds clichéd but I believe in impact,” she says with a big smile. “There are things you can change and there are things you can&#8217;t change. But when I look at it, the impact is worth so much more… If I can change someone’s life, I will say to myself, ‘this is the reason why I&#8217;m doing it’. So, for me, that is a motivating factor.”

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