REMIND PROJECTUSING TECHNOLOGY FOR MOTHER & CHILD

SURVIVAL

International Reporting Project Presentation

19 February 2013 – Mumbai, India

Why Mother & Child Survival?

1 out of every 5 children less than 5-years old on the planet lives in India. (20% of the world’s children)

1 of every 4 children who dies, dies in India. (25% of all child deaths worldwide)

More than 1 out of every 5 women who die during pregnancy, delivery or soon after, dies in India (19% of all maternal deaths worldwide)

Why Uttar Pradesh?

•India’s most populous state • 200,000,000 people• Almost equal to population of

Brazil

• 1 out of every 35 people on the planet lives in Uttar Pradesh

• UP has some of India’s worst statistics in terms of mother and child survival

• Mother and child deaths in UP threaten both national and global achievement of MDGs 4 (reduce child mortality) and 5 (improve maternal health)

Make a difference in UP, and you make a difference in the world!

Causes of Maternal Deaths in India

Hemorrhage (38%) Infection (11%) Most mother’s

deaths are preventable through safe delivery and adequate maternal care before and after birth

Newborn causes (33%) Prematurity and low

birth weight, birth asphyxia, infection

Respiratory Infection (22%)

Diarrhea (14%) Malnutrition contributes

to one-third of child deaths

Causes of Child Deaths in India

“By taking women into account, child survival can be influenced where it begins — in the years,

months, and days before a child is born and in the critical hours, days, and months after birth”(Symposium

report –Save The Children)

Project Overview

Reducing Maternal and Newborn Deaths (ReMiND) Project

Partners: Vatsalya, Dimagi Inc. Area of Intervention:

2 blocks of Kaushambi District, Uttar Pradesh

Beneficiaries: 45,762

Project Duration: 3 Years (Oct 2011 – Sept 2014)

Donors: CRS, USAID DIV 2.0

Imagine that you are an Accredited Social Health Activist…

Female community health worker covering a rural population of about 1,000

Estimated 32 pregnant women & 98 children under-5

Mostly Low literate and some are functionally illiterate

Communities’ first point of contact with the health system

Volunteer with financial incentives

Have about 28 days of training and limited supervision

Mobile Application

Customized app using CommCare software: Useful details about

clients retained on phone for easier case management

Culturally-appropriate images for counseling and to aid low-literate users

Locally-recorded audio messages for clients as well as ASHAs

All text and interface in Hindi

How ReMiND pregnancy application works?

Why Use Technology?

ASHA case management app:

Helps in comprehensive counseling with standardized messages

Supports timely and appropriate counseling

Supports identification and referral of women & newborns with danger signs

Tracks each woman’s knowledge, practices and services received

Tracks frequency and coverage of the clients by ASHA

Why use technology?

Cloud Infrastructure

Real-time monitoring as data is uploaded from the field

Custom exports for data analysis and reporting

Challenges

Appropriate time and staffing must be available in the start-up phase to ensure quality content and initial roll-out of CommCare to ASHAs.

Initial learning curve of ASHAs who have little or no previous experience using mobile phones

Working with ASHAs who have no functional literacy

Engaging middle level supervisors of ASHAs to support them

Frequent change in the leadership in government at district level

Pleasant Surprises

ASHAs report multi-media app helps give them more credibility with clients—validates key health messages

Coverage of mobile network agencies is available even in very remote areas.

Despite electricity supply issues, ASHAs have found back-up mechanisms to keep their phones charged.

Support is being provided by the family members of ASHAs who are functional illiterate.

District project team is able to resolve almost all the technology issues that have emerged so far.

Questions