BACKGROUND
Maternal and child health (MCH) is a global priority, it is one of the essential public health services. According to a study by the United Nations, 295 thousand maternal deaths per year were estimated in 2017, and there were 18 neonatal deaths per 1000 live births worldwide in 2018. Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia account for about 86% of the reported maternal deaths worldwide. Children in low-income countries are almost 18 times more likely to die before age five than children in high-income countries; most maternal deaths happen during or immediately after childbirth.
The major causes of neonatal death are preterm delivery, extreme infections, birth asphyxia and low immunisation rates. The lack of health services connect, in-time reminders & communication, low-literacy levels and health condition measures lead to maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. Also the literacy levels among women and gils in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia is extremely low. In counties like Afghanistan, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and others countries. The literacy level among women & girls is as low as 19%-24%, in the underdeveloped countries, making it very hard to women to communicate and consume any health promotions and IEC materials. The health service seeking behaviour is poor making the demand for services also very low.
SOLUTION
Toy-Bots for Health were designed as an innovative solution to overcome poor health communication, lack of health service connects, absence of reminder and recall systems. Toy-Bots were designed to track health conditions of women and children, provide regular health reminders-recalls and; connect them with health systems to access timely health services. Toy-Bots provide timely reminders to women and children in localized audio. Toy-Bots also sends emergency conditions to health system to take actions like – ANCs, High Risk Pregnancy Management, Timely Immunisation. Toys-Bots were designed using generative AI models based on over 100,000 women data and over 64,000 routine immunisation data of children between 0-5 years collected from Afghanistan, India, Rwanda and Uganda.
Each pregnant woman is registered on the Mama-Toy with her date of Last Mensural Cycle (LMC). Toy calculates here daily and weekly progress, ANC Status and HRP status and based on the condition generates local language advisories for action. In Uganda the Toys interacts in Luganda, Lusoga, Runyankole & Rutooro languages, in Afghanistan the Toys talk in Pashto & Dari.and in India Toys interact in in Hindi, Odisha and Marathi.
Tika Toys are designed for tracking Routine Immunisation of new-borns. Each child is registered on the toy with his/her date of birth. The toys is essentially used as a reminder & recall tool advising about due vaccines importance and ensuring timely immunisation.
Stage: Implementation
ZMQ’s Research of Development teams have tested the Toy-BOTs in India and Uganda for Prenatal Care in India and Uganda and; for Routine Immunisation in Santhaal Tribal belt of Odisha in India. The research results are under publication and will be shared soon.
SDGs IMPACTED
