For nearly 50 years, Concern Worldwide has worked with the world’s poorest people to transform their lives. We reach 7.4 million people in 29 countries, working in emergency response, health and nutrition, climate resilience and more. Innovations for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, an initiative of Concern Worldwide U.S., pilots creative solutions for improving the survival and health of women, babies and children. Innovations is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

CHIPATALA CHA PA FONI Bridging Women and Children to Better Health Care through mHealth in Malawi

for maternal, newborn& child health

Chipatala Cha Pa Foni (CCPF) or “Health Center by Phone” is a groundbreaking initiative that uses mHealth to help bridge the divide between rural communities and health services in Malawi.

Chipatala Cha Pa Foni provides immediate advice from health professionals to pregnant women, mothers and caregivers of young children, by means of a toll-free hotline and an automated, personalized messaging service.

Concern Worldwide’s Innovations for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (Innovations) implemented the pilot from July 2011 to June 2013 in the Balaka district of Malawi with our NGO partner VillageReach, which is now scaling it up with support from the Ministry of Health.

ABOUT CHIPATALA CHA PA FONI

Malawi’s Health Access Challenges

Balaka is a rural district where families face significant challenges to accessing health care. Women must travel long distances to get to health facilities, where clinic staff are in short supply and wait times are long. Often, they forgo crucial visits, sometimes resulting in life-threatening emergencies. Consequently, women and children in Balaka experience some of the country’s worst health outcomes.

Through a toll-free hotline, health workers at Balaka District Hospital give callers health information, advice and referrals. An automated messaging service delivers personalized text or voice messages and reminders tailored to a woman’s stage of pregnancy or the age of her newborn or child. Community volunteers equipped with phones help to drive the project and give those without phones access to these key services.

Program Successes

An evaluation of the program by Invest in Knowledge Initiative and Concern Worldwide U.S. showed that CCPF has helped to strengthen both home-based and facility-based maternal and child health care in various ways. By conveying critical information and services to communities in need, the initiative has not only improved the management of community-based care, but also has cut down the number of unnecessary visits to

overstretched health facilities. Because caregivers are now being advised on how to treat children with fevers at home, for example, fever-related visits to health facilities are down.

Many women described the usefulness of the mobile health services. Hotline health workers helped both to reassure mothers and to identify danger signs that necessitate getting to a facility. They communicated important and often life-saving information, such as clarifying drug regimens, educating young mothers about feeding and hygiene practices for newborns and babies, and how to overcome the challenges of being in transit during labor.

National Rollout

CCPF was designed with large-scale use in mind. The Malawi Ministry of Health endorsed CCPF in early 2014 and is encouraging a national scale up.

The project, which operates from Balaka District Hospital, now operates in four of the country’s 28 districts, in central and southern Malawi. Plans are afoot to expand it to five more by early 2016, with potential for further scale up in Malawi and other countries.

The Ministry of Health’s Reproductive Health Unit is now prioritizing the growth of CCPF instead of the development of new mHealth services for maternal, newborn and child health. This government support has helped elicit financial support for CCPF from the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Merck for Mothers and other partners. VillageReach is working with the Ministry of Health to integrate the project into national plans and budgets within the next year.

Results of CCPF have been published in Journal of Global Health: Science and Practice and a special supplement to the African Journal of Population Studies.

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