Africa is often referred to as the "Dark Continent" mostly because of so many problems that continue bedevil her population especially in regards to healthcare delivery. AOPHC Foundation, a non-profit organization has decided to help strengthen the health system by improving communication, information (data) flow starting with the most populous country - Nigeria.
The country has over 100,000 Public and Private Healthcare Centers located mostly in rural areas, which at the moment deliver very poor and fragmented health services to the detriment of the poor and underserved population. With one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the world, women still die every day from childbirth; new born babies don't survive or die before their first birthdays, children under 5 years of age die of malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea in large numbers surprisingly because sometimes the nurses are unable to telephone (call) the doctors to be in attendance or for life-saving instructions, or the ambulance driver for timely referral etc.
Why do mothers, especially nursing mothers have to walk long hours through difficult terrain just to pick of results of laboratory tests, get more information after immunizing their children or about medication dosage or simply to make health-related inquiries?
There is no existing readily accessible hospitals directory in the country, nor is there a working referral system. Similarly, reliable data for proper planning and for allocation of resources by both the government and local and international donors is also lacking due to poor communication and outdated data collection systems.
AOPHC Foundation through your donations want to put functional telephone and communication systems to ease the flow of information during emergencies, communication between doctors, nurses and community health-workers; or for simple communication between facilities and patients/service users in the community.
Adoghe’s Online Public Health Charity Foundation is a registered non-profit charity organization founded by Dr. Anthony Adoghe, a public health physician who has passion for innovative and cost-effective ways for health promotion solutions. Using a group of tireless team members and volunteers, AOPHC Found has started to install telephones in primary healthcare centers and hope to cover all 100,000 health facilities in Nigeria. We also provide free health information online; using social media; with very good follower-ship on our Facebook page and Facebook group (search “AOPHC”), and offline in rural settlements.
We have mapped out a project framework that will help to wire and network relevant PHCs in Nigeria and subsequently across Africa and other developing countries, using simple cordless phones and battery computers.
1. One desktop phone cost $20 - $50 (our initial goal is to get about 10,000 health centers connected).
2. The benefits are enormous; two-way communication between health workers and patients/clients via telephony, SMS (text-messaging) for directory and referral services, reminders for immunizations, emergency contact, etc
3. Subsequent costs and maintenance of the phones is already being negotiated with telecommunications companies and government agencies.
4. It is our goal to have all hospital facilities, secondary and eventually tertiary healthcare facilities connected for ease of access for both patients/clients and health workers in the very near future.This project will obviously serve as an entry point for other health initiatives.
Our challenges may be much; funding, difficulty in reaching rural facilities due to difficult terrains, government bureaucracy, etc. But we are optimistic and enthusiastic. We work with volunteers and already established local authorities, which helps to minimize administrative costs and ensure that most of the money raised goes towards our course.
Our immediate needs;
1. Funding
2. Vehicles for easy transportation and navigation of difficult road networks
3. Of course MORE volunteers.
PLEASE DONATE TO HELP US PUT TELEPHONES AND PERHAPS COMPUTERS WITH INTERNET CAPABILITY TO SERVE THE HEALTH NEEDS OF THE POOR AND NEEDY. ALSO HELP TO SPREAD THE WORD USING INDIEGOGO SHARE TOOLS. THANK YOU!
