Influencer Mothers - Excellence in Care

1. Public health policies are insufficient to meet the needs of women and  babies living in the outskirts. 
2. Thinking about present and future, we decided to take care of early childhood, using "different and innovative ways" so as not to lose anyone. We have invested in the potential of a group of mothers, supported by a nurse. Influencer-Mothers make eye-to-eye visits, create trustworthy relationships with women, talk about self-care, pregnancy, stimulate baby development, raise awareness of rights, encourage breastfeeding and readings for babies. They distribute a social technological appliance to control and ensure breastfeeding. Pregnant and infant homes are identified with flags, involving the community in care. With the use of a digital platform, these actions will be escalated. 
3. For two years now, pairs of Influential-Mothers, recognized as leaders where they live, have transformed the lives of mothers and babies. They can be in any community around the world, changing lives.

We are ensuring a healthy pregnancy, birth and first months of life, in an atmosphere of love, safety and well-being. Parelheiros (150,000 inhabitants) has low socioeconomic indexes, 57% black population, almost 20% teenage mothers, 23% pregnant women without enough prenatal care, 460 births/month (reference maternity), ignorance of rights in pregnancy, delivery and first months. These families need the care given by mothers who live there and know their reality, building relationships of affection and trust, potentializing changes in habits and transformations. Brazil is one of the most unequal and racist countries in the world. According to UNFPA, the fertility rate among 15 to 19 year-olds is 62 per thousand babies, above the world average of 44. Also, in the country, according to WHO and UNICEF, 38.6% of children are fed exclusively with breast milk in the first 6 months of life, below the world average of 40%. In São Paulo unemployment (17%) plus the growth of domestic violence (47% in 2019) and during the pandemic (+50%) increase the insecurity and stress of pregnant women and mothers with babies. 

Pairs of Influencer-Mothers from Parelheiros accompany pregnant women, mothers, babies. During home visits, they talk about the birth plan, take pictures for a portfolio, organize conversation circles to talk about pregnancy, self-care, massage, scalping feet, affections, emotions and insecurities, recalling memories and songs from childhood. In visits to mothers with babies they encourage breast-feeding with the appliance called Mother Flower and tell children stories. In conversation circles they cook together and eat healthy food, talk about self-esteem, empower these women. Special care accompanies families with disabled babies, signs of violence, postpartum depression. IM uses WhatsApp groups with women accompanied by each one and the nurse, to talk, answer questions, send podcasts, media, consult experts. 

Influencer-Mothers meet weekly with the nurse and specialists for training, actions monitoring, searching for solutions, exchanging affection and care. 

They invite people in their areas to take care of pregnant women, mothers and babies, visiting mothers in the Parelheiros' Maternity Hospital, where they tell stories, offer books and the Mother Flower. They do activities at “House in the Middle of the Way”, which supports pregnant women who are waiting for the birth of their babies and shelters puerperals whose children are in the Neonatal ICU. 

Since 2017, 14 Influencer Mothers, now recognized as community references, have accompanied 990 pregnant women, 1,010 mothers, 1,120 babies (0 to 1 year) in 6 communities of Parelheiros. 

Links created between Influencer Mothers, women and partners (Health Centers and Maternity Hospital) are carefully constructed. Identifications are established promptly by proximity to the neighborhood and relationships are formed horizontally. 

By observing demands and challenges, Influencer-Mothers seek new solutions with the women they care for: unemployment and hunger drive home planting, preparation and reuse of healthier food, special care for babies with disabilities, guidance for women who suffer violence, aggravated by the pandemic. 

Accompanied women give feedback that they feel safer by communicating with Influencer Mothers through WhatsApp, feel empowered by their care and valued as women, empowered by information about pregnancy, baby care, breastfeeding, relevant information to their lives and their children. 

Our goal is to leverage the technology of coexistence with the construction of an open web platform, with filters for users and with georeferencing data of women/pregnant women cared for. The information and interaction between Influencer Mothers, women/pregnant women, information about care, will be carried out using an IOS/Android application and as an information tool for decision making.

Care with excellence from Influencer-Mothers to pregnant women, new mothers, babies, in Parelheiros, has enabled pregnancy, birth and the first months to elapse with respect, affection, health, safety and well-being. They happen both face-to-face, and also remotely (WhatsApp, Zoom, others) and soon via new information technology, bringing information, encouraging exchanges, triggering new strategies. Our solution is simple, powerful, reapplicable and can be adapted in small or large global communities, respecting different knowledge, beliefs and cultures, restoring the dignity of women, stimulating solidarity, compassion, protection, love in families and communities, feelings so forgotten in these inequal times, leaving no one behind.

The solution is innovative because innovative are our coexistence technologies, from initial training to team composition, the mapping of resources and skilled people and leaders in the neighborhoods, the weekly conversation circles, qualified listening and looking, the humanizing principles prioritized, respect and appreciation of the diversity of gender, race, sexual orientation.

The solution is not fragmented, but composes a platform of health initiatives, permaculture, healthy eating, literature as a right. 

The solution is not imposed from above, because from the construction of the action to the evaluation of results, the process is collective and shared, incorporating popular and academic knowledge in a balanced way. The solution is built on the basis of community and territorial potential, with the involvement of women in the midst of whom Influencer Women are chosen, neighbors of their peers and connoisseurs of the peripheries where they live.

The relationships between coordinators, pregnant women, Influencer Mothers are horizontal, supportive, affectionate, as are the relationships between Influencer Mothers and theirs with pregnant women, new mothers and babies, full of love, compassion and care for one another, so as not to lose anyone.

The journey builds present and future, to transform Parelheiros into "the best place in the world to be born and live". 

The use of information technologies and georeferencing can facilitate and enhance the reapplication of our coexistence actions, increasing the number of monitored women and incorporating other territories.

Aiming to leverage the coexistence technology, it is strategic to build an open web platform, with filters for users and georeferencing data of women/pregnant women attended, which allows to promote the exchange of information and knowledge between Influencer-Mothers, specialists, pregnant women, new mothers, fathers, health workers. 

This component will allow for a dynamic and inclusive environment of exchanges, contributing to the care, health and well-being of pregnant women, mothers and babies, with relevant themes. The platform will have spaces for exchanges about pregnancy and babies, companions requested to go to doctor’s appointments or to look after the children in emergency situations, highlights of videos and educational data, indications of cultural activities. Some conversations among mothers will be accompanied by experts and will receive a seal of quality. In the disclosure of information, there will be a forum, where Influencer-Mothers will follow the contents, make posts, receive a table of topics that other users were discussing. Specialized professionals (doctors, lawyers, etc.) will be invited to make posts from their areas. Users can create topics to talk about or ask questions, which accompanied by Influencer Mothers and experts may be more qualified.

The interactions between Influencer-Mothers, women/pregnant women will be able to generate information and data collection that will be validated by Influencer-Mothers and specialists. For this, the creation of an application for IOS/Android will be an information and decision making tool. These are some of the needs to extend the reach of the solution, involving more women and territories.

The technology to care for pregnant women, new mothers and babies is inspired by an experience developed between 2010/2011 in Maranhão aiming to reduce newborn mortality from 0 to 28 days of life in 17 municipalities. “Caring for the Future" reduced 10% of neonatal child mortality by training caregivers and involving local teams (experience reported in the book "Caring for the Future - reducing maternal and child mortality in Maranhão"(2012), organized by Tião Rocha and Cristina Loyola. 

The action of the Health Care Workers remains in 3 quilombos in the MA. http://www.cpcd.org.br/cuidado...

In Parelheiros, the work of the Influencer Mothers with the appliance Mother's Flower given to puerperals at homes, at Interlagos Maternity Hospital and by the partners - Basic Health Units and Child Education Centers (CEI) resulted in an award to CEI São Norberto "Early Childhood in São Paulo" in the City Hall of SP, for the care of breastfeeding babies with the use of the Mother's Flower (daily breastfeeding schedule) and reduction of health problems in babies.

In Parelheiros, we have data on the impact of coexistence technology with 54% of pregnant women assisted in the Maternity Hospital of reference, an increase of 1150% in reading spaces for babies and pregnant women, 741 women during 1 year interacting, exchanging experiences, reducing stress, taking care of themselves during pregnancy and the very first childhood. Evidence on social networks:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/ib...

They follow platform models that have some aspects that could make up our proposal for our solution:  http://mapas.cultura.gov.br 

and https://labcidadefau.carto.com 

The solution aims to have healthier neighbourhoods in Parelheiros, with pregnant women, new mothers and babies cared for by Influencer Mothers, involving communities, not losing anyone. 

Among the goals are: safer and less stressed pregnant women, knowing their rights in the various stages of pregnancy, being visited by Influencer Mothers, listened to, supported, and changing habits. New mothers breastfeeding their children, informed about child development, reading to their babies.

Influencer Mothers are not professionals from the health field, but they give guidance according to the nurse’s training and guidance. In continuous formation, they dialogue with specialists and health professionals, exchanging different knowledge about pregnant women, puerperals and babies, guiding essential care, stimulating women to seek better care in public services. They develop actions in the Basic Health Units, in the model Maternity Hospital, in the day care centers, in the adopted streets that adopt their children. Our solution empowers women with best practices and science-based information, incorporating popular and ancestral knowledge, creating "different and innovative ways" to care for this target. In pairs, Influencer Mothers create trusting relationships with pregnant women and mothers, talk about self-care, prevent violence, and empower them, encouraging exclusive breastfeeding, distributing Mother's Flower, a social technology to control and ensure breastfeeding. Pregnant women and infant homes are identified with flags, involving the community. 

The care of the Influencer Mothers who live there and know the local reality enable the construction of affective and trusting relationships, potentiating changes in the lives of these women and children.

Parelheiros has a high rate of early pregnancy (17%), a high percentage of the black population (57%) in a racist country, low socioeconomic rates. 

In our solution, more than 5,000 activities developed since 2017, more than 3,500 people have been directly benefited and about 10,000 have been indirectly benefited. 

Today, Influencer Mothers can translate women's demands to health professionals and theirs to them, contributing to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality, supporting pregnant women in risky pregnancy follow-ups and improving prenatal rates in the region.

With the use of information technology, these actions will be enhanced! Economic and Social Analysis.

Current number: 14 Influencer Mothers, 990 pregnant women, 1,010 mothers, 1,120 babies (0 to 1 year) and 410 (1 to 6 years) in 6 communities of Parelheiros. Indirect beneficiary 8.000

1 year: 24 Influencer Mothers, 1.200 pregnant women, 1.500 mothers, 1.400 babies (0 to 1 year) and 600 (1 to 6 years) in 10 communities of Parelheiros. Indirect beneficiary: 20.000

5 years: 30 Influencer Mothers, 2.000 pregnant women, 3.500 mothers, 3.000 babies (0 to 1 year) and 10.000 (1 to 6 years) in 30 communities. Indirect beneficiary: 100.000

1. To increase the number of Influencer Mothers respecting our differential of formations with several specialists from inside and outside the territories to potentiate abilities and social transformations.

2. Create a web platform and application that stimulates the connection between pregnant/mothers and Influencer Mothers with SOLVE support.

3. Increase the number of pregnant women, mothers and babies accompanied and included in this solidarity platform in the 62 neighborhoods in Parelheiros.

4. Increase the use of the app to other neighborhoods, cities, states and countries

Our biggest barrier is to raise financial resources, as we depend on financial support to carry out and scale our actions. Even the Influencer Mothers working as volunteers, they receive a daily allowance. And there are expenses with materials, transportation, food at training meetings, trips to the “House in the Middle of the Way” among others.

Another barrier is the technological structure, as most residents have simpler mobile phones, so the application needs to be developed in an accessible way, consuming low levels of mobile data and little internal memory, so that these phones can access data and materials.

Another challenge is to ensure the expansion of the team of Influencer Mothers, as well as the expansion of the team for management and maintenance of technologies, to expand the solution to more pregnant women, new mothers and babies and in more territories.

The challenge of the financial barrier will be faced with the search for more and new supporters, to maintain the solution and its expansion. In this case, the Solve Community could refer to and raise awareness of potential sponsors.

Regarding mobile phones, we could look for some ways, such as the donation of equipment, even more at this time of COVID-19, where schools and universities are teaching their classes at a distance and many families are not having access to them due to lack of equipment. We can consult and/or get support from researchers linked to universities and technology centers, in the search for solutions that improve and implement the technological structure in this region.

To expand the team we need to raise financial funds, our dream being a community financial fund, which helps in the financial support of the Influencer Mothers, in addition to expanding and strengthening the social technology Bank of Solidarity, increasing the number of volunteers for local actions. The Bank of Solidarity registers people who say what they can teach and what they want to learn. From there, the exchanges are made. The Bank of Solidarity has already shown up mothers wanting to join the Influencer Mothers, exclusively as volunteers in the neighborhood where they live, without any cost for the solution.

The solution team comprises the Brazilian Institute of Studies and Community Support - IBEAC (1981) - a non-profit social organization that strengthens the culture of human rights and participatory citizenship and solidarity, developing inclusive and innovative methodologies that can be repplicated. It involves the local teams, from territory diagnosis and empowerment of residents to action planning and execution. It confronts inequalities with appreciation of diversities, opposes individualism with solidarity and compassion, substitutes ready-made recipes for "doing together". 

In Parelheiros (since 2008) it has worked with early childhood care, healthy eating, agroecology and access to books.

• 14 Influencer Mothers, who work full time as volunteers and receive an allowance.
• 2 Reading mediators, young people who work as part-time volunteers and receive daily allowance.
• 3 Social Educators who stay at the Middle Way House, next to the Maternity Hospital, which is open 24 hours, 7 days a week.
• 2 Project Managers and 1 IBEAC Coordinator, who work full time, coordinating and following up the solution in the territory where it is developed. 
• Around 20 volunteers who collaborate at strategic moments, most of them experts in topics relevant to the development and improvement of the solution.  

We believe that, to transform realities, it is necessary to have information, formation and collective actions. We have developed a way of working that faces inequalities, valuing diversities; faces silences with conversation circles and listening; opposes individualism with solidarity; overcomes the imposition of ready-made recipes with "doing together".

For about 27 years, we have been working nationally in different Human Rights programs in the areas of: environment, health, education, culture and social assistance, prioritizing children, youth and women. For 12 years we have concentrated in Parelheiros, a suburb in the extreme south of São Paulo, with a focus on excellence in early childhood care from the womb, ensuring access to books and literature as a right and opportunity for new paths to life, raising awareness and making women's rights come true, fighting against rape and violence, encouraging and supporting community-based and sustainable social entrepreneurship. We value the development of multiple skills in the communities and the connection with partners from various areas, individual and institutional supporters, local volunteers, academics, experts acting with dedication and seeking a better future for our children and all residents of this territory. 

We have been working with pregnant women, new mothers and babies since 2013, when young participants and pregnant women of the Community Library Paths of Reading began having children.

From then on we started to improve our actions and to build technologies for coexistence, learning, opportunities and welcoming for pregnant women, new mothers and babies, incorporated in the solution.

-We are partners of the Popular Center of Culture and Development in the construction of this solution.

- In the first 2 years, we got support from the Bernard van Leer Foundation, for excellence in early childhood care. 

-From 2020 onwards, we got resources from Itaú Social Foundation to strengthen our mission and focus on Early Childhood.

-The Federal University of São Paulo-UNIFESP and CAPES Foundation supported a research project on contemplative practices with volunteers of our solution. 

-Information Technology Faculty-UNIFESP is building with students, the outline of a closed community social network, to improve health and well-being of pregnant women, mothers and babies, in vulnerable communities. 

-The School of Nursing at the University of São Paulo, with Santander Universities, supported research on street adoption, as well as the project "Women From Here" art/photography, to value the IMs and support actions on human diversity, with priority to children with disabilities, their families and community involvement.

-The Catholic University of São Paulo/Psychology Faculty, has an internship agreement for 5th year students to accompany Influencer Mothers. 

- The Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul/Economic and Social Analysis Center is developing a research in Parelheiros to measure the degree of cortisol in the hair of pregnant women, revealing their degree of stress, with charts and analysis.

-The project “Born to Read” (Italy) will produce, with the participation of Influencer Mothers and others, the 1st book of the baby, to be distributed to the newborns of Parelheiros.

Our services: Eye-to-eye visit (during COVID-19 virtual visits by whatsapp and videocall), updated information on pregnancy, child development and others from scientific evidence and popular knowledge conversation circles, book readings, games, wellness care (massage, foot scalding, shantala massage), connection with specialists from the community and outside it, adoption of streets that adopt children, evaluation of services offered to women, development of actions in partnership with professionals and services in health, education, social care, law, etc.

Products: media with guidelines (audiocast, podcast, videos), flags that identify homes for pregnant women and babies, healthy eating, books scattered in pockets in the neighborhoods, Mother's-Flower (social technology to ensure breastfeeding), Home for pregnant women and new mothers, training for various groups and local services in the communities.

Chanels: All services are offered free of charge to communities, with programming for local partners by social medias. Demands come from the community itself, social indicators, health and others. Being the Influencer-Mothers residents of the region, they know and welcome the target audience, which is increasing in "word of mouth", visits and dissemination in person and via social networks. 

In the exchanges with the Influencer-Mothers, it is clear that the communities need supportive spaces, guidance in an accessible language, focused on local realities.

This model produces data that contribute to the improvement of the quality of life, health and well-being of mothers, pregnant women and children, the qualification and improvement of actions, the work plan and evaluation of ICM, the involvement of other institutions in the platform.

We are a non-profit social organization, which will turn 40 years old in 2021. We have participated in calls for proposals, we have received an invitation letter to participate in programs from some Foundations that know us and invite us to send projects to be supported. We can say that our business model is Service subsidization. In the case of this cause, we raise funds from supporters of the early childhood care cause, and we are hired for training on our methodologies and social technologies. 

In the medium run, we want to create conditions for the Influencer Mothers to create products for sale for the public interested in the solution, in a logic of Cooperative, contributing to their livelihood and sustainability of the solution.

We would very much like to create an endowment system for sustainability of all our actions.

Our intention to be part of Solve is because our solution proposes, develops and improves an innovative technology of coexistence between people, especially women, that needs to be expanded, reach more women and territories, and needs the information technology (digital platform) to enhance and multiply information, exchanges and provocative repertoires of healthier lives with more well-being. The core of the solution is the Influencer Mothers, who bond with other women through empathy and compassion, turning demands and information into solutions. Responses are built collectively and with the support of technology and, this way, they can be leveraged by impacting more women. 

In this sense, becoming part of Solve will be excellent for the network of connections and exchange of experiences, the possibility of creating a digital platform and an application that can strengthen and expand initiatives that the IMs already develop, systematize information, create reports that point impacts, challenges and more collective solutions. 

For this to happen and for this dream to come true, financial and technological resources and the expansion of the Influencer Mothers team are essential.

We want to be part of this network that seeks, shares and scales innovative and transformative solutions.

The pandemic has led to more unemployment in Parelheiros, increasing stress and domestic violence. We use Solidarity Economy techniques such as Exchange Clubs to exchange food, services, clothes, etc. We need to create income solutions for women. We have women who sew, paint fabrics, embroider, but we need a more profitable production line. Income generation is an important topic at the conversation circles, for the assisted women and the IMs. We need to know business models that contribute to the sustainability of the solution and technical partnership to develop platforms and applications. Our ideas need a partner who captures the ideas and needs of the IMs and volunteers.

Fundraising is a big challenge. Partnerships and support in this area would be much needed and welcome. One of our dreams is a financial fund, whose income would sponsor the projects, guaranteeing autonomy.

We need to spread our ideas in different contexts.

- Technological and social innovation agency - Agits Unifesp/Brazil and partners MIT Sylvia Maria Affonso da Silva and Paulo Schor (www.agits.unifesp.br)

-Mexico's Supercívicos with Diego Mendiburu, the digital platform they created aligns with some ideas of interaction that we have

-Beyond Conflict in Boston with Michael with Niconchuk Mapping minds for social health by the experience and research with racism, oppression, and violence, topics much discussed and demanded by IMs and communicates with the research of Professor Hermilio of CAES - PUCRS Brazil.

We know that existing public health policies are insufficient to meet the needs of pregnant women, mothers and babies living in the peripheries. 

We are qualified for the prize because we reflect on the present and future of Parelheiros and act using Different and Innovative Ways so as not to lose anyone, and it has driven us in the cause of caring with excellence for early childhood starting in pregnancy. This incessant search for the utopia of doing/aiming with excellence has the centrality in the voice and power of women, of Influencer Mothers, who, in a process of action-reflection-action, develop technologies for coexistence, which enable improvements in health, social and educational indicators. IMs become leaders, ambassadors of their communities for more extended care in line with ODS.

In this sense, expanding and replicating this solution to other communities in São Paulo, in the whole Brazil and in other places in the world motivates us, as we have experienced transformations and developed a powerful methodology created and managed by women, but which calls on everyone's responsibility to care with excellence.

With the prize in hand, we will expand the number of Influencer Mothers, develop our application and digital platform, connecting more pregnant women and mothers in this supportive network.

Our solution defends lives, which deserve more quality, dignity, opportunities, guaranteed rights, in territories that become healthier and more sustainable with our actions! 

We developed a coexistence technology, which guarantees that pregnancy, birth and the first months of life go by with more physical and emotional health, in a climate of love, security and well-being. 

This enables changes in health and social assistance indicators, based on the empowerment of women and the involvement of their families and communities in the excellence of early childhood care. 

We invest in the potential of Influencer Mothers, a group of mothers, supported by a nurse, who make visits, create bonds and relationships of trust, stimulate self-care, talk about pregnancy, the babies, stimulate their development. They provide rights, prevent violence, encourage breastfeeding and reading to babies. They distribute "Mother Flower" to control and ensure breastfeeding. Houses of pregnant women and infants are identified with flags, involving the community in care. 

IMs seek new solutions with the attended women: unemployment and hunger drive home planting, preparation and reuse of healthier food, special care for babies with disabilities, guidance for women who suffer violence. 

Accompanied women tell us that they are safer, by communicating with the IMs on a permanent basis through WhatsApp. 14 Influencer Mothers who accompany 990 pregnant women, 1,010 mothers, 1,120 babies (0 to 1 year) in 6 communities. 

In 2 years, Influencer Mothers became recognized as community references and work in partnership with the Basic Health Units, the reference Maternity Hospital and the day-care centers.