Ask The Paediatricians Foundation

Dr Gbemisola Boyede is a Neurodevelopmental Paediatrician and Founder/CEO of Ask The Paediatricians Foundation. She started Ask The Paediatricians Foundation (ATP) which is a registered non-profit in Nigeria as a Facebook Group in July 2015 out of her passion as a Paediatrician to reduce deaths of children from preventable causes; often rooted in ignorance of parents and caregivers. ATP is a recipient of multiple local and international awards for promoting child health intelligence online and offline through free community medical outreaches in Nigeria.

Dr Gbemisola Boyede obtained MBBS degree from the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos in 2002 and completed residency training in General Paediatrics at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital in 2010. Dr Boyede additionally had subspecialty fellowship and Masters of Philosophy degree in Developmental Paediatrics which she did as a Fellow of the African Paediatric Fellowship Programme of the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Ask The Paediatricians Foundation is committed to reducing preventable child deaths in Nigeria in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 3 by providing evidence-based health education online; and offline through free community medical outreaches and health-boosting welfare support to indigent children. 

ATP provides health education and information on child health issues to parents and caregivers of children online through multiple media platforms: ATP Facebook group with 628,000 members as at 20 June 2020; ATP Mobile app, website and social media platforms - YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages. ATP answers child health questions 24 hours 6 days a week, provides multiple webinars and video live-stream (ATP LIVE).

ATP has conducted through her 42 State/Zonal chapters  over 100 free community medical outreaches to reach children living in under-served communities in Nigeria with limited access to healthcare professionals and facilities. ATP seeks to reach more Nigerian children with our health interventions.

According to the World Health Organisation, globally estimated 5.3 million children under age five died in 2018–roughly half of those deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria is a major contributor these child deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS, 2018), the under-five mortality rate in Nigeria is 132 per 1,000 live births meaning that 1 in 8 Nigerian children never reach the age of 5. One Nigerian child under-5 years of age dies every minute. Most of childhood deaths occur in rural and indigent communities in Nigeria who lack access to good health and health-care facilities for various reasons.

Several factors are contributory especially the lack of access to quality healthcare delivery services. Problems such as cost for treatment, deplorable state of the health facilities, distance to health facility, lack of awareness and knowledge for informed decisions and referral are some of the many difficulties stated by caregivers in describing difficulty with accessing healthcare. Additional factors include prevalence and negative impact of harmful traditional practices rooted in wrong belief systems, poverty and ignorance. Ask The Paediatricians Foundation seeks to reduce those deaths that are largely preventable especially those rooted in ignorance.

Ask The Paediatricians Foundation is solving the ignorance problem through health education online via multiple platforms including the Ask The Paediatricians Facebook group with over 600,000 members who have testified to how they are making positive changes based on knowledge acquired through the group. Other platforms are the ATP website, mobile app and social media platforms.

Ask The Paediatricians Foundation is contributing to solving the problem of access through free community medical outreaches to indigent communities throughout Nigeria. ATP community medical outreaches include health education, feeding the children one nutritious meal to demonstrate good nutrition, free medical and dental consultations including simple procedures, mass deworming, nutritional assessment, immunisation status assessment and prompt referrals to hospitals where necessary. Health promotion is a major feature during the outreaches where families are informed and educated on child survival strategies to reduce preventable deaths of children.

Ask The Paediatricians Foundation recently piloted ATP mobile clinics in 4 indigent communities in Lagos to evaluate impact of consistent monthly outreaches. The pilot yielded positive feedback but requires more consistent funding. We also recently started doing ATP Online clinics - a form of telehealth medicine initiative as part of bridging the gap during ongoing Covid19 pandemic crisis.

Ask The Paediatricians Foundation primarily serves Nigerian children through interventions targeted to their parents and care givers who have access to digital tools online and those without digital access through outreaches. 

ATP has a large online community on Facebook where Paediatricians and other health care professional provide free health education, information and answers to various health questions by parents and caregivers of children. The group currently has over 629,000 members in more than 100 countries of the world as at June 2020 who daily reported positive impact of ATP in raising healthy children.

ATP  has conducted more than 100 community medical outreaches since the first one in October 2016. ATP in addition to independent outreaches has collaborated with other nonprofits and faith-based institutions to provide the medical outreach components of their community outreaches. ATP has organised many successful nutrition seminars and workshops for healthcare professionals.

Ask The Paediatricians Foundation supports orphans and vulnerable children through the Annual Christmas Lunch programme for underprivileged children in collaboration with other partners. ATP renovated the dilapidated block of classrooms in a primary school at Mancha in Edu local government area of Kwara State in 2018 as part of welfare support of indigent children.

Ask The Paediatricians Foundation's projects align well with virtually all of the Elevate Prize dimensions. ATP is providing solution to one of the most difficult problems in the world - reducing child deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa especially in Nigeria to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 3. In addition ATP reaches and provides access to healthcare for indigent children in under-served communities in Nigeria through our outreaches. These families have been traditionally left behind. Finally ATP works hard in our online community to address and correct attitudes, beliefs and behaviour that negatively impact the health of children especially bursting healthcare myths.

As a Nigerian Paediatrician treating sick children and appalled at the high rate of preventable deaths of children in my country. Each year, attending Paediatric Association of Nigeria conferences, listening to the dismal statistics over and over again with little or no changes yet hearing we know and have 75% of all it takes to reduce these deaths to single digits like in developed countries - simple and low cost. Technologies, I know I must do something about it.

I remember having to break the most horrible news of all times of a child death to the parents. It was even more devastating knowing that if only the child has been immunized against Tetanus, he will be alive or if the mother has only given ORS or come just a day before, I would perhaps have saved the child from the unnecessary and preventable death.

This is what led to the birth of ATP Facebook Group! Though it is just one mother or child at a time who through knowledge will not add to the horrible statistics, it is something. Then I realised that not all mothers have mobile phones or internet access. This birthed the community medical outreaches.

I am quite passionate about no child dying especially from a disease that can be prevented or easily treated when I am alive and can do something about it. I may not be a politician or the Minister of health, but I can work in my circle of influence and control.

For me though it is just one mother or child at a time who through knowledge of information or I shared freely on my Facebook group or via our mobile app; or the direct consultation and treatment provided during the free medical outreaches; it is something. It may be a drop in the ocean of global and regional statistics but for that mother it is 100%! 

So each time I read feedback of mothers who would say I made many mistakes with my first baby but now I am doing so well and don't even need to go to the hospital. When I see the pictures of children saved just in time from dying from malnutrition because child's mum posted and we did something about it through our programmes; I feel elated knowing I am contributing my little quota to that goal of reducing child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa.

I grew up as a Christian and want to follow in the steps of Jesus Christ my role model who went about doing good. I had many leadership opportunities and served as medical student. I am also great at teaching concepts simply to people even to peers. I have read many amazing biographies of those who made a difference in the world and changed the world for good for example Mary Slessor who abolished the barbaric killing of twins in Calabar.

While in medical school, I read two great books: Purpose-driven Life by Rick Warren and Fulfilling Destiny by Casey Treat. These books helped clarified my life's purpose. I wanted to be a history maker and a world changer by brightening the corner where I am even if it is for just one person.

I became a doctor and further specialised as a Paediatrician treating sick children and appalled at the high rate of preventable deaths of children in my country. Each year, attending my country's Paediatric Association of Nigeria conferences, listening to the dismal statistics each year with little changes; yet hearing we have 75% of simple and low cost technologies to reduce these deaths to single digits like in developed countries ignited something in me to do something and make a difference.

Starting a simple blog and Facebook group answering parents' questions about health of their children; I have been able to build an organization - Ask The Paediatricians Foundation- that has won multiple local and international awards.

I have faced many challenges starting Ask The Paediatricians Foundation both internally and externally and there have been times I have thought of closing down the group completely and giving up due to the demands on me and my time with my family.

I remembered a particular incidence during our second outreach and an organization who has agreed to assist us with feeding the children pulled out a day before because another organization who they perceive as a competitor also joined to support the outreach. This was in May 2017. I was devastated. I made numerous calls and had to get an alternate arrangement for meals around 9pm on friday evening for  the outreach on Saturday! I remembered transferring all the cash I have in my personal savings to the food contractor. I was willing to sacrifice because it was too late for fundraising and we practically have nothing left to deal with this unplanned expense.

Luckily, the outreach went well and surprisingly we got a donation during the programme and we were able to get things sorted. I learnt from that experience to always have a back-up plan especially when dealing with external agencies who can pull out anytime. 

I am a recipient of many leadership awards including the Facebook Community Leadership Fellowship Programme in 2018 and the honorary Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Corporate Mentoring and Coaching Nigeria in recognition of my leadership and mentorship skills in 2019.

For me leadership is influence. I have been able in the last 5 years to influence many members of the Ask The Paediatricians Facebook group who joined primarily as beneficiaries to become volunteers for our community medical outreaches. When we expanded to having state and zonal chapters; some of such volunteers have also now become state and zonal chapter leaders. I have been able to influence and create more than 50 leaders in the core leadership team of the Ask The Paediatricians Foundation.

Being a leader is ability to see further and have a vision that you can get others to join in. This is what I have been able to do with the Ask The Paediatricians Foundation which started as an informal Facebook group but has now become a registered foundation in Nigeria with multiple local and international awards to its credits almost all done through volunteerism. We only employed staff after obtaining our first major international grant.

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Ask The Paediatricians Foundation is using social media as platform for creating change. Parents and caregivers of children are critical stakeholders in reducing the child mortality figures but they are usually sidelined and not part of the discussions when the professionals are taking decisions and creating programmes to address the issue of child deaths from preventable causes.

Ask The Paediatricians Foundation is engaging with this critical stakeholders. We realise that no matter what professionals plan, it will be a failure if the parents are not buying into it so we take our programmes directly to parents using volunteers and technologies that are low cost and bypassing bureaucracy of established governmental and other development institutions and keeping everything low cost and dependent on donations of beneficiaries.

Most people come first to ATP as a member of the Facebook group; get answers to their own child health issues. They fall in love with what the group does and want to contribute their quota by donating or volunteering too. This is how we have grown from an online community who now has over 630,000 members and 2000 volunteers in more than 33 States and the federal capital of Nigeria with no adverts; doing offline projects and outreaches and has become a registered institution in the country.

We have leveraged on power of community of people who rally around a common good. Beneficiaries and members transformed into donors and volunteer partners who are very loyal and committed to the vision of reducing child deaths.

Inputs: 

•Ask The Paediatricians provide quality Child health education to parents and caregivers of children including direct answers to their questions about child health by Paediatricians and other health professionals.

•Free Community medical outreaches to indigent children.

Outputs:

•Parents and caregivers  join ATP Facebook group/download the ATP Mobile app.

•Members acquire health education/information from evidence-based answers to questions.

•Implement evidence-based health and child survival practices

•Children get diagnosis and treatment input at medical outreaches.

Outcomes:

•Parents and caregivers have knowledge, attitudes and practices that promote child health and survival. 

•Children grow up in health promoting homes

•Children are healthy and unlikely to die from preventable causes.

Impact:

•Reduction in child mortality in Nigeria  from preventable causes.

Assumptions between input and output:

•Most children die in Nigeria from conditions that are preventable and treatable due to ignorance and lack of access to right information.

•When parents get right health information directly from child health professionals they can trust; they will implement and this will reduce deaths of their children from preventable causes.

•ATP provides a platform for parents to interact directly with Paediatricians and other health professionals; learn good child survival practices, debunk myths and have their questions answered.

Assumptions between output and outcomes:

•Child Health professionals provide quality evidence based information and education on all the learning platforms and communities which parents engage with. Parents and children not online are reached via offline direct community medical outreaches. As parents begin to practice what they have learnt; children brought up by such well-informed parents are not likely to die from preventable causes of child deaths

Assumptions between outcomes and impact:

•With implementation of promotive child health practices learnt on ATP, more children will be healthy and less likely to die. The government also would provide prompt health care for the children and family when they are advised to see health care professionals at health facilities when necessary. In the long term, more children will survive and not die from the preventable causes leading to significant reduction in child mortality in Nigeria.

ATP Social Impact Report Independent Analysis (Pg 14 - 22)

The number of people we are currently serving on social media is about 633,000 and we have reached 50,000 children (not counting their caregivers) through our direct community outreaches.

We aim to reach 1,000,000 online in the next 1 year and reach 100,000 children (not counting parents) in the next 1 year.

We aim to reach 2.5 million persons online and 1 million children directly offline through our medical outreaches in the next 5 years.

Ask The Paediatricians Foundation is seeking to reach more children directly and consistently through our pogrammes. We would like to run our mobile clinics monthly instead of our current biannual outreaches as this will allow us to monitor and measure the impact of our interventions on a long-term basis in each community that we work with.

In the next one year, we aim to reach 100,000 children directly through our community medical outreaches. We aim to train and raise up more leaders for our chapters which we will like to have present in all the states of the country and each state also having at least 2 zones each as we already have 6 zones in Lagos so as to impact more communities. We are seeking to make our mobile app more user friendly and promote our ATP Telehealth clinics initiative we started in response to Covid19 pandemic to reach more children in difficult to access communities by leveraging on technology. 

In the next 5 years; We want to offer our service in all the 777 LGA in Nigeria! We also seek to take the message of child health promotion to all the schools in Nigeria and catch them young. We aim to create ATP clubs where children know about health issues and they will serve as agents of change in their communities and they would also become well-informed parents too in adulthood consolidating on the reduction of child mortality in Nigeria from one generation to another generation.

1. Finance: 

One of our main challenges is financial. We also rely heavily on donations of members and occasional grants. However with the magnitude of the impact we seek to make, we need to have more sustainable source of income to run our projects. We also seek to update our app but the budget is quite daunting. We are consistently seeking for ways to raise funds and become financially sustainable.

2. Staff:

We currently operate mostly as volunteers using only adhoc staff as needed. We currently have only 2 paid staff though the core admin works almost full-time but do not draw a salary. However this is linked to our financial challenges above as we often need to be sure we can pay salaries consistently.

3. Grants

As a small grassroot organization, convincing the big funders to take a chance on us is always so hard and many would rather work with government agencies and established nonprofits. However I believe we can prove that we can make more impact if given the chance like Facebook did with us.

Financially we are currently experimenting with income generating services that can fund our projects so we have started Telehealth Clinics which patients have to pay for. We are also creating courses that would be subscription-based and aim to raise funds from that as well.

We have also been getting paid advertisements on our Facebook group and social media handles from organizations that have products and services for the communities we serve.

We will keep applying and seeking for grants and also put forth proposals towards our various programmes breaking them down into easy sections.

We would employ more staff as soon as our funds are becoming steady or as adhoc as well.

We will appreciate if we can have our app upgraded and revamped by partnerships with MIT and also providing technology solutions to reaching more communities who are not readily on the online social media platforms.

Currently none but we have been supported by Facebook previously through the Facebook Community Leadership Programme in 2018 which came with a grant of fifty thousand dollars.

We are a nonprofit that is also dabbling into social enterprise.

1. We currently provide FREE health education, information and advise to parents and caregivers of children online on Facebook and social media platforms and our ATP mobile app free downloadable on Google and Apple stores. Our Facebook group has members from more than 100 countries.

2. We do free community medical outreaches to indigent children in Nigeria. We rely on freewill donations and crowdfunding for our outreaches.

3. Very recently, we have created ATP Clinics which is telehealth provision services for which patients pay a fee that is moderate and the organization takes a token while the professional take the rest.

4. We are also planning courses and programmes that would be paid for workshops and apps as a way of funding our projects. This is currently in the pipeline.

We aim to be raising funds for our projects through the following:

1. Donations

2. Grants 

3. Clinical Services via telehealth platforms

4. Courses and subscription apps

5. Crowdfunding on Global Giving and Givingway

We have received donations and grant from Facebook . 

Facebook gave us last year some of $50000 which were spent in community outreaches and other programmes. This was a grant and we have submitted reports to Global Giving which administered the grant on behalf of Facebook.

The rest of our funding for last fiscal years which was less than $30000 are free will donations including those from crowdfunding platform like global giving and payments for adverts on our media platforms.

We are seeking a grant of $100,000 for this year's project and have applied for couple of grants but none is successful yet.

We are internally doing fundraising and seeking private donations.

We have put this at $100,000

I am applying to gain more support for the work I am doing including the funding as well. As someone who has enjoyed something similar in Fellowship from Facebook in 2018; I know the potential in such prizes in terms of leadership skills development, partnerships and collaborations and the funding too. 

I am especially looking forward to how to use technology solutions to be able to impact the health of children in Nigeria and break the old barrier of geographical and financial assess to health care which has been a contributory factor to the high rate of child mortality in Nigeria. 

I believe the Elevate Prize will take Ask The Paediatricians Foundation to the global level and this will help us to accelerate our impact on the Nigerian children and reach our goals faster than we could have done currently on our own. I am also grateful for the opportunity if chosen to inspire others as well in doing more and making impact in their communities.

1. Funding - as stated under the barriers, this is a major challenge for us so we are looking for ways to make our work more financially sustainable while at the same time accessible and reachable by our target population some of whom are very indigent.

2. Monitoring and evaluation: We want to be able to really measure our impact though we have had one done previously but would love to be able to see our work properly monitored and evaluated for measuring impact.

3. Marketing, Media and exposure - We are relatively popular in Nigeria and have been featured in many local and international media. However we want to be able to gain recognition and support from big funders too.

4. Technology support/solutions: since this is MIT, we are looking for ways of reaching more children in Nigeria using technology. I believe we can get a low cost solution.

MIT - for the technology solutions

We don't have any other specific names but welcome all support from any organization that has a link to what we seek to achieve.