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$31,500
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Seva Mandir—An NGO in northern India—has invited us to pilot our technology with them, and we need your support to make it happen.
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THE PROBLEM
Community health workers walk door-to-door for hours each day, reminding mothers about upcoming vaccination clinics. Despite this hard work, millions of children never complete their basic vaccinations. When we visited Northern India, we found three major systemic problems.
We’ve built an inexpensive digital necklace and an accompanying mobile app that streamline the process of vaccinating children in the developing world.
Khushi means happiness in Hindi. With Khushi Baby, children can wear their entire vaccination record. All the data is stored on a tiny near-field communication chip that can be accessed without an internet connection. It's durable, battery-free, and costs less than a dollar.
We chose to build a necklace because when we visited northern India, we noticed that most babies had necklaces already. They’re commonly worn to bring good health and fortune.
Here's how it works:
Over the summer, we visited India and tested our product alongside local health workers. They gave us their support. Now we just need yours.
Our system addresses all three of the challenges listed above:
1. We send automated voice calls to mothers, which stress the importance of vaccinations and alert them of where and when to get their children vaccinated.
2. We help healthcare workers track which babies need which vaccines each day, so they can bring enough supplies to clinic.
3. We provide NGOs with rich data that helps them maximize the success of their immunization programs.
OUR TEAM
We met earlier this year in a class at Yale called Appropriate Technology for the Developing World. Our team was challenged to work on a project that would improve vaccination rates. But Khushi Baby outlasted the semester. In April, we won the Thorne Prize for Social Innovation in Health (sponsored by InnovateHealth Yale) which made our project a reality.
Now our team has expanded to include other talented members of the Yale community and beyond. Seva Mandir—a reputable NGO in Northern India with over 45 years of experience in grassroots development—invited us to run a pilot program in their immunization program early next year. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Health Management Research are also collaborating on the pilot. We’re all committed to making Khushi Baby succeed beyond the classroom.
WHY PLEDGE?
This is about more than just access to vaccines. It’s about giving health workers the data they need to improve their treatment programs. We want Khushi Baby to be a sustainable venture, but our first step is running this pilot in northern India. By making medical history wearable, we can bridge the gap between providers and patients in a truly impactful way.
We've done the calculations, and we need $25,000 to get our pilot off the ground. This includes technological development, travel expenses to Rajasthan, local research support, and basic material costs.
Be a part of our movement. Your investment will go far:
CONTACT US
We’d love to hear from you. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Drop us a note at teamkhushibaby@gmail.com or @teamkhushibaby on Twitter. And be sure to like us on Facebook!
Risks and challenges
We know that working in the US to run a pilot program in India will be a huge challenge. That's why we've partnered with Seva Mandir, an NGO with over 45 years of experience working in our target communities. We're also receiving research support from IIHMR, led by Mohammed Shahnawaz. With his help, we'll be able to thoroughly monitor the success of our system and measure its impact.
Since we are changing the workflow for Seva Mandir's entire healthcare workforce, we must ensure that the transition is smooth and easy. To do this, we are introducing our technology in three phases, with the goal of having Khushi Baby technology in all 100 clinics by June 2015. This gradual implementation of our system will allow us to fix any technological or logistical problems as they arise. If necessary, we can postpone full implementation until the system is completely ready.
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