Help Association Pesinet conduct focus groups with mothers in Burkina Faso to identify ways to extend our innovative service of home health check-ups for babies and young children.
Why we care: One out of six children die before the age of 5 in West Africa; many of these deaths are preventable with early detection.
How we’re solving this: Using regular home visits and mobile phones to remotely monitor the health of children and detect early signs of illness.
Many mothers in West Africa wait until it is too late to bring their child to the doctor because of the cost of care, the time needed to bring the child to the center and a lack of education as to the risks behind ignoring certain early signs and symptoms.
Association Pesinet offers families an innovative service that is aimed at preventing and detecting illnesses at an early stage and then helping families access the care their child needs. Association Pesinet does this by hiring women from the local community and training them as health monitoring agents. These agents pay regular visits to subscribed families to collect simple health data, such as weight, stools and fever. This data is entered in a mobile phone and sent via a database to the doctor at the nearest health center. The doctor reviews the information every day and alerts agents to fetch children who show early signs of illness. In addition to conducting check-ups and liaising with families, agents also use their home visits to educate mothers on how to recognize and deal with simple children’s illnesses. Association Pesinet has offered this service in three districts of Bamako, Mali since 2009—serving more than 1,500 children. Association Pesinet subscribers represent 50% of the total number of children under 5 examined at the partnered medical center in 2010.
Today, we are ready to launch the service in a new country: Burkina Faso. However, we need your support help us preserve the best elements of our service in Mali, while making sure that the pilot in Burkina Faso is well adapted to the new context. To ensure that the needs of mothers are fully accounted for, we are organizing a series of focus groups with mothers from the community. This first step is critical to bringing real added value to these women and families.
Association Pesinet is supported by the Kering Foundation, which combats violence against women and promotes their empowerment. Launched in January 2009, the Foundation supports community-based projects and encourages employee involvement to sustain women’s causes around the world. Through four programmes, it supports local and international NGOs as well as social entrepreneurs, helps raise awareness and establishes joint projects with the Kering brands. In 2012, more than 80,000 women benefited from its support in 16 countries. *In line with PPR’s change of name, the PPR Corporate Foundation for Women’s Dignity and Rights will become the Kering Corporate Foundation, subject to approval at the Foundation’s board meeting on 26 June 2013. www.keringfoundation.org @KeringForWomen