Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

Programs

Kilifi Kids

last updated Mar 18, 2013

Overview

Implementation Partner(s): 
Rotary International, United Nations Foundation, Vodafone Foundation
Legal Status: 
Private (not-for-profit)
Year Launched: 
2006
Stage: 
Existing/expansion stage
Income Level of Target Population: 
Bottom 20%

Funding

Primary Source of Funding: 
Donor
Additional Source(s) of Funding: 
In-kind contributions
Funders: 
Charlotte Dilworth South End Rotary Club, Kilifi Rotary Club Kenya, Vinings Rotary Club

Technology

Technology Used: 
Phones
Technology Purpose: 
Facilitating Patient Communications
Summary: 

Kilifi Kids is an all-volunteer group of Kenyan and American professionals working together to improve health and education for thousands of children in Kilifi district. It is a nonprofit organization devoted to making high-impact investments in health to help poor kids thrive in communities like Kilifi, Kenya. Currently, the program is exploring new ways to innovate service, empower the local community, and deliver self-sustaining and scalable solutions.

Program goals/rationale: 

The objective is to alleviate malnutrition in poor countries. An estimated 51% of children in Kilifi are considered medically underweight, making it difficult for them to fight off infection. As a result, thousands of children in Kilifi die each year from malnutrition. Kilifi Kids aims to fight malnutrition by providing mobile health care to Kenyan children.

Key program components: 

Kilifi Kids maximises social returns through seeking out projects in health that are innovative, scalable, and community-driven. Current work in “mHealth” is doing just that, and aims to transform the way health is delivered in Kilifi and throughout Africa.

The mHealth uses mobile technology to improve the delivery of medical care in Kilifi. The pilot uses an open-sourced software developed by FrontlineSMS:Medic and works with the Ministry of Health (MOH) to provide mobile phones to community health workers (CHWs). The system allow CHWs to share information with the district hospital about their patients through text messages so that doctors can then advise them on what action to take. Using the system, CHWs can request delivery of needed drugs for sick kids from their home base. Computers behind the system are programmed to tell staff which children are in the highest risk categories and in need of immediate care based on data submitted via text messages from the CHW. The Ministry of Health can then determine which health workers need re-training and which might be able to serve as mentors to less experienced CHWs.

The program kicked off it's mHealth pilot in 2010 by connecting rural clinics with mobile phones in late spring. It is anticipated that this pilot will be replicated across the country and improve health outcomes for more than half a million Kenyans.

Program history: 

Kilifi Kids began work in 2006 and launched the mhealth project in July 2010. The group plans to replicate this model to other health systems in 8-10 sites in Kenya and eastern Africa.

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mHealth for Development.pdf4.38 MB
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