mMitra

mMitra mMitra is a free mobile voice call service by ARMMAN that sends timed and targeted preventive care information weekly/bi-weekly directly to the phones of the enrolled women through pregnancy and infancy in their chosen language and timeslot. 2.00 Million WOMEN REACHED 9 STATES 41 NGO PARTNERS 97 HOSPITALS Rationale Lack of access to preventive care information is a significant problem underlying the woeful maternal morbidity and mortality numbers. The high mobile penetration in India positions voice calls as an excellent mechanism for reaching women and families with this critical life-saving healthcare information in a timed and targeted manner using the principles of behaviour change Communication. Programme Design Free automated voice calls on critical information on maternal and infancy care, starting from pregnancy till the child is a year-old. Women are enrolled in the mMitra program through two verticals: Hospital Vertical – Health workers are posted in the antenatal / postnatal clinics of municipal/government/private hospitals and register women during their first check-up visit. Community Vertical – Enrollment in the slum is done through partner NGOs working in slum communities. Sakhis (community health workers) have been trained who enroll women directly in the early stages of pregnancy for a small incentive. Salient Features ARMMAN and BabyCenter has developed the messages that have been validated by The Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Society of India (FOGSI) and National Neonatology Forum (NNF). Frequency: 145 individualised voice messages of 60-120 seconds are sent with the following frequency: Pregnancy: Bi-weekly First week after birth: Daily Until Infancy month 3: Bi-weekly Infancy month 4 to Infancy month 12: Weekly Timed & Targeted: The information in the calls is timed to the stage of the pregnancy or age of the infant and is delivered directly to the women. Chosen Timeslot: The calls are sent in the timeslot chosen by the women. Preferred Language: Women can receive the calls in Hindi, Marathi, Kannada and Gujarati. Repeat Calls: There are three tries for every voice message. Missed Call System: If a woman misses all three calls, she can give a missed call to receive a call back. Call-center: A trained counselor can be informed in case of a delivery, abortion or to change the phone number or timeslot. All the Customised Components of mMitra The following components can be added to the mMitra program: Customised Malnutrition Programme: 120 additional weekly/monthly customised and automated voice calls on nutrition and steps to prevent malnutrition will be sent to mothers till the child is five.Additionally, mothers of children who have developed SAM (severe acute malnutrition ) will be handheld by trained nutrition counsellors through a total of 20 direct phone calls sent weekly during the 8 weeks of treatment and once every fortnight during the next 6 months of rehabilitation to prevent relapse. Customised HIV-AIDS programme: Handholding through weekly voice reminders and call centre for HIV positive women until the child is 18 months of age to prevent vertical transmission of HIV / AIDS from mother to child. This programme is supported by Johnson & Johnson and their ‘Connect For Life’ technology platform. The programme consists of a total of 351 voice messages (offered in Hindi and Marathi) empowering the women with critical information that focuses on foetal development, counselling, medication (ART) reminders, importance of adhering to ART, positive living, right nutrition, breastfeeding, investigative tests and other important guidance. Besides these automated voice messages, the programme also offers automated visit reminder calls and follow-up by the dedicated call centre staff, thus hand holding them through the care process to prevent transmission of HIV/AIDS to the infant. The programme is now being implemented in Pune District and Delhi as a small pilot, following which we are expanding to Mumbai. Women Enrolled: 507 One-stop Call Centre: Trained personnel will address health-related queries of expectant mothers/women with children under age five. The call centre personnel will use FAQs created by in-house experts and validated by FOGSI and Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP). Impact The midline survey results of the pre-post intervention study in Sion hospital and the end line results of the randomized cluster trial conducted in Osmanabad, Solapur and Washim districts of rural Maharashtra (supported by UKAID) have shown a significant impact. Mentioned below are two important findings. 95.2% women in the intervention group knew the importance of taking IFA tablets for 100 days during pregnancy compared with only 59.2 % in the control group. 52.10% of women in the intervention group took IFA tablets 100 days as compared with 30.44 % in the control group. External evaluation (randomized controlled trial) has been completed by FRHS in Mumbai and the results which are encouraging will be published shortly. Accolades ARMMAN won Maternal and Child Health Team of the Year at British Medical Journal Awards South Asia 2018. ARMMAN won the WHO ‘Public Health Champion’ 2017 award in the Innovation Category. ARMMAN received Zee Media’s Transform India 2017 award. mMitra won the GSK-Save the Children Health Innovation Award 2017. mMitra was one of the four awardees in the world and the first Indian NGO to receive this award out of 170 applicants from 40 countries. mMitra won the Silver award for the “Best Use of Mobile for Social & Economic Development” at the Indian Digital Awards 2017 by IAMAI forum. mMitra was a finalist at Vodafone Foundation’s ‘Mobile for Good Awards 2015’. mMitra won the “People’s Choice Award” at “Saving Lives At Birth” event in 2011 organised by USAID, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank, Government of Norway and Grand Challenges, Canada.