CarePack™ Campaign
Vestergaard Frandsen launched a groundbreaking pilot program, called CarePack™, to dramatically increase the rate of HIV testing in African communities. At 31 temporary testing sites over a 7-day period, the replicable campaign tested 80% of a Kenyan community for HIV/AIDs while addressing the two other biggest public health killers in Africa: malaria and diarrheal disease.
Sobre ti
Sección 1: Sobre ti
Sección 2: Sobre tu organización
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Sí
Nombre de la organización
Vestergaard Frandsen LLC
Sitio web de la organización
Teléfono de la organización
011-41-21-310-7333
Dirección de la organización
Dhemin de Messidor 507, CH-1006
País de la organización
Suiza
Tu organización es
Empresa
How long has this organization been operating?
Más de 5 años
tu idea
Name Your Project
CarePack™ Campaign
Describe your Social Enterprise
Vestergaard Frandsen launched a groundbreaking pilot program, called CarePack™, to dramatically increase the rate of HIV testing in African communities. At 31 temporary testing sites over a 7-day period, the replicable campaign tested 80% of a Kenyan community for HIV/AIDs while addressing the two other biggest public health killers in Africa: malaria and diarrheal disease.
Country your work focuses on
Kenya
Innovación
What makes your innovation unique?
Our idea is unique because it creatively and effectively addresses one of the big health crises of our time. Experts feel the biggest challenge in fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa is the very low rates of testing across the continent, where less than 10% of people know their status. Only when those numbers dramatically increase can those positive receive counseling and treatment, and begin to protect their loved ones. We created a unique program to increase testing rates to over 80% and help countries like Kenya achieve their national testing goals.
Close to 50,000 people participated and virtually everyone took a voluntary HIV test. For the first time, the ability to achieve a national target of 80% of adults knowing their HIV status was realized, within just 1 week.
The campaign was unique in its implications for the way global public health campaigns operate. Traditionally, diseases like malaria, HIV and measles have been addressed by governments and NGOs one at a time. By working together to deliver multiple disease prevention initiatives, time and costs can be dramatically reduced and donor dollars maximized.
The campaign included a pre-event mobilization component which was critical to its success. Villagers were surveyed to determine cultural influencers and barriers to participation. Messages were then developed and delivered through the most effective means.
The campaign was unique in its use of anonymous parallel HIV testing of an entire community which diminished the stigma associated with HIV testing.
The campaign was unique in its use of an incentive, the CarePack™ of health interventions (bed nets, water purifiers and condoms). This incentive served a dual purpose -- to encourage participation and to give participants tools to help prevent the three largest public health killers in Africa. As a rapidly scalable model for HIV testing and counseling, this cost-efficient health intervention has the potential to save lives far beyond the borders of Kenya.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
No
Impacto
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Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
Francisca Khabamba participated in our CarePack campaign. She is a widow with six children and learned that she was HIV positive. She is desperately poor, and brews traditional beer to earn what she can. Her health has improved since the campaign and she is able to better care for her children. She’s taking a wide-spectrum antibiotic called Septrin to treat a chest infection, and now takes vitamins, attends the support group, and visits the clinic regularly for CD4 tests. She says her family has enjoyed much better health because of the bed nets and water filter.
The CarePack™ campaign had an enormous health impact on poor, rural Africans like Ms. Khabamba. Close to 50,000 people participated, and virtually everyone took a voluntary HIV test. For the first time, the ability to achieve a national target of 80% of adults knowing their HIV status was realized, within just 1 week. By comparison, less than 10% of most people in sub-Saharan Africa know their status. The campaign was so successful that the village it targeted is likely to be the first area of rural Africa that meets international HIV testing targets.
Further, the replicable CarePack™ campaign holds the potential to reduce suffering and save lives far beyond the borders of Kenya, potentially delaying the progression of HIV. The CarePack™ presents a new model which can break down the barriers traditionally separating multi-disease prevention programs and become the gold standard for a more effective approach that other governments can adopt. It can save costs by helping HIV positive people remain relatively healthy, provide them with clear access to medical care and counseling, and provide a model to demonstrate that HIV can be made a disease of investment vs. expense.
Problem: Describe the primary problem(s) that your innovation is addressing
The CarePack campaign addresses several of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals:
- Demonstrates that a community can rapidly increase access to and uptake of voluntary HIV counseling and testing by testing 80% of a target population in Kenya within an unprecedentedly short (7-day) period. This addresses Goal 6; Target 1—Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases; have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS. Since HIV testing rates remain poor in most parts of the sub-Saharan Africa, 83% or approximately 1.2 million HIV-infected Kenyans don’t know they’re infected!
- Achieve much broader community coverage of long-lasting insecticide treated bed nets (LLINs), including the first-ever campaign to distribute bed nets to adults. This addresses Goal 6; Target 3—Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases; have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases — and the Roll Back Malaria Target of Universal coverage of LLINs for the entire population at risk since less than 50% of people sleep under an Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) in sub Saharan Africa.
- Provide tools to purify water and prevent water-borne diseases. This addresses Goal 7; Target 3—to ensure environmental sustainability; halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. In Kenya, only 46% of the rural population have access to safe drinking water; about 21,800 people die from diarrheal diseases every year.
Actions: Describe the steps that you are taking to make your innovation a success. Include a description of the business model. What might prevent that success?
A number of African First Ladies have expressed interest in having the next CarePack campaign take place in their country. We have met with leading ladies from South Africa, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zambia and Uganda and helped them write proposals to international donors to replicate the campaign in their own countries.
Strong local participation was essential to the success of the campaign. To ensure a strong turnout, a social marketing agency was hired to conduct research to determine the best way to encourage participation. Messages were then developed, tested, and refined prior to the launch of an aggressive mobilization campaign.
Success of the pilot campaign would also hinge on the follow-up component. To ensure compliance with the preventative tools given out during the campaign, participants were educated on use of tools. Follow-up visits to villagers were also conducted to check on compliance. Additionally, to ensure ongoing medical treatment for those who tested positive for HIV, a health clinic was opened in a nearby village to make it easy for villagers to get medical treatment.
Finally, CarePack™ planners knew that it would be critical to measure all aspects to determine the viability of replication in other settings. This comprehensive analysis and reporting would be critical when presenting the CarePack™ concept to future donors and governments.
An extensive post-intervention monitoring and evaluation plan consisted of 3 components: 1. feasibility assessment, 2. efficacy determination and 3.cost effectiveness analysis. Leading academics who worked on reports are from the U.S. CDC, the University of California at San Francisco, London School of Tropical Medicine, Cambridge University, and others. Their reports have been written and submitted to peer-reviewed journals.
The only threat to the short term success of the campaign approach is the global economic downturn; there are simply fewer funds for these types of public health campaigns. We are hopeful that when the global economy recovers that successful and innovative campaigns like ours will be widely replicated
Results: Describe the expected results of these actions over the next three years. Please address each year separately, if possible
The goal is to hold the second CarePack™ campaign in the fourth quarter of 2010, also in Kenya. This larger scale CarePack™ will target 3-4 million people to participate in the voluntary HIV counseling and testing campaign over a one-month period.
In 2011 the viability of this scaled-up approach will be proven, the campaign can be replicated widely.
And in 2012 and beyond, we will know the campaign has been successful if hundreds of millions of people have been tested and know their status while staying healthier with bed nets that prevent malaria and water purifiers that decrease diarrheal disease.
How many people will your project serve annually?
Más de 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your innovation seek to have an impact on public policy?
Sí
If your innovation seeks to impact public policy, how?
The CarePack™ campaign will provide health authorities with valuable program and cost-effectiveness data that could inform policy and program decisions regarding delivery of multi-disease preventive packages to communities in similar settings. It could break down the policy and funding barriers that have traditionally separated these diseases, and become a new model for an increased efficacy, reduced cost public health intervention that could be replicated on a larger scale in locations around the world.
Sustenibilidad
What stage is your Social Enterprise in?
Operando entre 1-5 años
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Sí
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Sí
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Sí
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with government?
Sí
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your Social Enterprise
The CarePack™ campaign would not have been the success it was without a fully collaborative partnership effort involving leading public and private sector entities. Each contributed specific expertise to ensure a meticulously planned, precisely executed and professionally evaluated event. Key partners, along with their roles and responsibilities, are detailed below.
− Kenya Ministry of Health assisted with the identification of the target population, provided liaison with district and community health staff, and provided general oversight and guidance.
− CHF International is a humanitarian aid organization known for its work in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Kenya. CHF was responsible for the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation components of the intervention. CHF coordinated closely with the Kenyan Ministry of Health, VF, and CDC to ensure that the interventions complied with national standards.
− An advisory team consisting of experts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Kenya office, University of California at San Francisco, Cambridge University, The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, among others played a supportive and advisory role.
- Vestergaard Frandsen conceptualized the CarePack™ campaign and entirely funded it. VF provided commodities for the CarePacks™ and oversaw their assembly. VF also brought approximately 150 company employees from around the globe to Lurambi to provide necessary human resources to run the 31-site event.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
The budget for the initial CarePack™ campaign was approximately USD $5 million. The main costs were staffing, including 600 trained counselors to conduct VCT, marketing/social mobilization campaign, CarePacks™ given to some 50,000 attendees, CD4 testing machines and test kits and site set-up materials including tents, water tanks, busses, and transportation
Vestergaard Frandsen provided all funding for the initial CarePack™, campaign. Moving forward, funding for additional CarePack campaigns will come from Nongovernmental and faith-based organizations, relief and development groups, global public health donors and foreign governments.
La historia
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
Vestergaard Frandsen is a passionate company committed to creating the most innovative products and approaches to help the most vulnerable people in the developing world. CEO Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen has seen the effectiveness of similar, though smaller scale multi-disease prevention projects, and believed that the CarePack™ campaign would work. Confident about its potential to save lives and reduce suffering on a massive scale, he was compelled to bring the demonstration project to life.
Mr. Vestergaard Frandsen also strongly believes that current government approaches and policies must be challenged in order to move faster and more efficiently to achieve the rapidly approaching UN Millennium Development Goals. He viewed the CarePack™ campaign as an opportunity to demonstrate to health ministries that less traditional but more innovative approaches to health interventions should be considered. Equally important, he realized that the success of the CarePack™ campaign could become an inspirational model to encourage donor organizations to consider similarly innovative health interventions.
Tell us about the person—the social innovator—behind this idea.
Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen is CEO of Vestergaard Frandsen Group, a 52-year-old company that has evolved into a global leader dedicated to improving the health of people in developing countries with emergency response and disease control textiles. Vestergaard Frandsen’s innovative breakthrough products, including PermaNet® bed nets to fight malaria and LifeStraw® water purifiers, are designed to reduce suffering on a massive scale.
Mr. Vestergaard Frandsen’s personal interest in developing nations began at 19 years of age when he moved to Africa and started a truck importing business in Lagos, Nigeria until he was forced to leave following a military coup. He has also lived and worked in Nairobi, Kenya, and New Delhi, India. Mr. Vestergaard Frandsen returned to Denmark in 1993 and joined his family’s business, then a traditional textile production company. Witness to the devastating effects of poor public health in Africa and India, he realized the urgent need for disease-control methods in developing countries and, in 1997, the company’s clothing business was sold off so attention could focus solely on the humanitarian disease control textiles business.
Mr. Vestergaard Frandsen strongly believes that business is for profit, but that profit must be for a purpose. He runs his company according to a self-sustaining humanitarian entrepreneurship model, which has allowed these two ideas to coexist.
Mr. Vestergaard Frandsen is involved in several leading groups seeking to find solutions to global health crises. He is a member of the private sector delegation to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and he sits on the board and several working groups under the Roll Back Malaria partnership. Last year, Mr. Vestergaard Frandsen was honored with the Economist’s Social Innovation Award, a coveted accolade which was given to Bill and Melinda Gates the previous year.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
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If through another source, please provide the information
Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen is CEO of Vestergaard Frandsen Group, a 52-year-old company that has evolved into a global leader de
 | 102 weeks agoMeryl Rader submitted this idea. |