Strenthening maternal health care delivery through e-learning

The world is facing a shortage of 4.3 million health workers, with every region except Europe showing a shortfall. Rapid urbanization in developing countries is exacerbating shortage of health workers in rural areas, as trained professionals seek work in more affluent urban conurbations.

Through this innovation, we aim to strengthen maternal health service delivery at rural & suburban levels by training local health practitioners in basic maternal health through e-learning modules. Therefore, increasing the number of maternal health delivery points. Closely monitored by quality assurance tools, new cadre of trained professionals will be able to deliver high quality maternal health services at affordable prices to the marginalized population.

This cost-effective approach will save several indirect costs such as traveling cost or time cost for the trainees and will establish them as Merrysilver clinics under the brand of proven Merrygold Health Network (MGHN) in Uttar Pradesh during this phase. Demand creation tools like media campaigns, SMS alerts or call centre will inform beneficiaries about new health points.

E-Learning approach is innovative as it proposes to leverage technology to train the practitioners in remote locations increasing service delivery. Secondly, it seeks to revitalize local health practitioners and bring them to maternal health mainstream to strengthen maternal health systems at all levels.

Funds from the grant will help Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust to demonstrate the impact, effectiveness, sustainability and scalability of the proposed solution and the contribution it can make towards objectives of saving lives at birth.