Healthy Malawi
In Malawi, unlike in the more developed places, getting access to health services is a momentous task. Logistical challenges such as immense distances make it impossible in many cases for people to access health facilities. Critical in this are pregnant women and mothers with young babies.
Our innovation is to bridge this vacuum by linking the women with health workers. This means that a pregnant woman who develops complications at night or a mother whose baby suddenly has diarrhea can simply grab the phone and call a health worker for advice regardless of the time or distance.
We believe that if this solution is replicated and scaled up it will save many lives and improve the health of women globally especially in the least developed countries.
Malawi has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios globally, currently estimated at 5.7 maternal deaths per 1,000 live births. Adolescent pregnancies comprise 25 percent of all births and 20 percent of maternal deaths. Neonatal mortality, often caused by birth asphyxia, premature birth, and infection, is estimated at 29 per 1,000 live births, while under-five mortality, mostly caused by malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia, is estimated at 84 per 1000 live births (USAID reports). Young women are likely to face increased health challenges. UNICEF says that 152 out of 1000 women aged 15 – 19 years have a child, 46% of girls are married before the age of 18, and 9% before the age of 15. Malawi has also one of the highest child maternal mortality rates in Africa. Maternal mortality ratio is at 439 deaths per 100,000 women, according to UNICEF. We want to address this problem by coming up with a simple yet effective innovation.
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We will allocate five phones, one to each of the villages. The phone will be under the custody of a trusted person such as group village headman. We will train the community to use the phones for rapid communication to seek assistance from health workers whom we shall also train in rapid response either on the phone or if the situation is dire to make a physical visit. Apart from call services we will also train the communities to use apps such as WhatsApp (most popular in Malawi). In terms of data usage WhatsApp is relatively cheaper and therefore an important cost saving item. It can also be used to send voice messages, an important aspect in places where people are illiterate.
The communities that we are working with are rural people who survive in very hard circumstances. Most are peasant farmers with no or very little education. The majority are women and young people under the age of 35. Here early pregnancies are the order of the day. No woman wants to reach the age of 18 before having a baby. Few have an understanding and knowledge of sexual and reproductive health.
Positivo has worked with these people since 2013 and understands their situation. Health services are a key need for them. If we can provide this, we will have solved one of the most pressing challenges that this target group faces. We will engage the women in particular to make them a driver of change by partaking the services offered by the project to their maximum and optimum usage.
- Expand access to high-quality, affordable care for women, new mothers, and newborns
Our target beneficiaries have no access to health services so they cannot afford quality and affordable health care. By creating this innovation we are changing that scenario. Now, rural marginalized women who rarely have a chance to meet a health worker will be able to do so simply by picking up a phone and talking to a health worker. This will bring health services to them.
- Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea
- A new application of an existing technology
Simple ideas that we may ignore can change the world dramatically. We are inspired by the oral rehydration salts. Who would have imagined that sugar, water and a pinch of salt would save millions of babies lives.
This innovation uses existing technology to save lives.
The mobile phone has become a force to reckon with in Africa. we are using it to save lives in this innovation. From farmers to fishing traders the mobile phone is able to provide rural marginalized communities with the capabilities to enhance their livelihoods, safety, economic sustenance, trade and other spheres of life. We want to do the same for health and in particular to women and babies.
Phones are being used for health provision services in different parts of the world. The links below support the use of mobile phones in health service.
- Software and Mobile Applications
Our goal is halving maternal and child deaths in Malawi by 2030. This is a goal that can only be achieved by all stakeholders
Our immediate impact is to have at least 5000 women access health services within 12 months of the project
To achieve this our inputs include 10 meetings with the communities, five trainings with the communities on mobile phone rapid health service use, two trainings for health workers in rapid response. This wll be followed by an evaluation and dissemination of our learnings during the project
- Women & Girls
- Pregnant Women
- Children & Adolescents
- Rural
- Minorities & Previously Excluded Populations
- 3. Good Health and Well-Being
- Malawi
- Malawi
Current number of persons being served: 10,000
Persons to be served directly in one year: 5000
Number of persons to be served in five years: 30,000
Our anticipated main goal is to reduce maternal and child deaths in Malawi by half by 2030.
Our objectives are that in one year:
At least 2500 pregnant women have used the mobile phones to access at least one health service
At least 2500 mothers have used the mobile phones to access at least one health service
The main goal can only be achieved together with other stakeholders such as government, NGOs and CBOs. The objectives will be achieved by us as an orgnaisation
The impact of Covid 19 in case there are more restrictions
Traditional attitudes that see diseases as witchcraft
Illiteracy among the target population
We will work with government on how to go about in the case of Covid 19. For attitudinal challenges we will conduct massive educational campaigns in the five villages to with factual information. In case of illiteracy we will use traditional oral communication to overcome the barriers
- Nonprofit
Six persons on full time, 14 volunteers
We work with rural communities every day. We are therefore very well positioned to work with them on this project. Our other projects include The Malawi Film Festival, an annual event that brings films to the rural areas to engage communities to discuss similar issues as those portrayed in the human rights films that affect their lives.
We collaborate with grassroots community based organisations, such as Alive Malawi to assist us especially in mobilisation. Our key partners are also traditional leaders. These are key to making the project acceptable and owned by the community
Our business model is to incorporate the corporate sector so that it can support this initiative. The telecom companies will be requested to support the initiative by offering free toll lines while other business concerns will be requested to support other costs
- Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)
Our main sustenance financially will be from the corporate world. We will seek corporate support as part of their social responsibility. For this one member of the team will dedicate their time and efforts to seeking support from the corporate organisations. We will seek both monetary and in-kind resources, for instance in in-kind support reduced or toll free call data from the mobile phone companies
Health of babies and mothers, health of pregnant women, reduced mother and child deaths are our main goals
- Business model
- Product/service distribution
- Funding and revenue model
We are a Non-Governmental Organisation therefore we do not have a lot of expertise in building business models. But we know that NGOs must also adopt business model approaches, hence our desire for this. We also want optimise product distribution and our revenue base
Telecom companies such as Airtel, TNM and corporate organisations such as Press Trust (which has a strong social responsibility elements)
We work with marginalized communities and refugees fall within this group
Our work with women at the grassroots makes us qualified for the prize. Our hope is to scale up and reach many more marginalised persons. From the initial five villages we would like to expand and cover more areas in Zomba and other districts. this way we will uplift the status of women.
We are qualified because already we are working to achieve the health of women and their babies. The prize will enable us to expand the work that we are doing
The work we are doing is to enhance the well being of human beings, hence we are qualified for the prize. We will use the prize to expand our capacity to do even more at the grassroots