Many women in India lack access to adequate prenatal care and deliver newborns in the home. A program backed by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the U.S. State Department, however, helps health care workers deliver critical health advice and monitoring with the help of a simple mobile telephone.

Since 2010 Dimagi has equipped health care workers with cell phones operating Dimagi’s CommCare software. A pilot program in the Kaushambi District of Uttar Pradesh has already found success after six months. Analytics are not yet complete, but  the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) who visit pregnant women have improved their knowledge of newborn care interventions and other high impact maternal care information by almost 25 percent. Watch the video below to learn more about an amazing program helping to save women’s, and newborns’, lives.

Leon Kaye will explore children’s health issues in India February 16-27 with the International Reporting Project.

[Image credit: Dimagi]

About The Author

Leon Kaye

Leon Kaye is the founder and editor of GreenGoPost.com and its advisory division, GGP Media. Contact him to discuss how he can work with your organization or event. His focus is making the business case for sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). He writes for San Francisco-based Triple Pundit, Inhabitat and now The Guardian, for which he writes about corporate responsibility, water, and green building. He has also written for AIA's Architect Magazine. Leon works out of Fresno and Silicon Valley, California, and when he has free time, he enjoys hiking, gardening, cooking, weightlifting, and planning his next trip to one of the 60 countries he has visited. He has an MBA from USC's Marshall School of Business and is also a proud graduate of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) and Cal State-Fresno.