Promoting maternal and child health through self-sustainability

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Promoting maternal and child health through self-sustainability

Kyrgyzstan
Organization type: 
nonprofit/ngo/citizen sector
Project Stage:
Idea
Budget: 
$50,000 - $100,000
Website:
http://kelechekplus.kloop.kg/
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Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

Kelechek HP is a local NGO that aims to improve the most vulnerable among women, children and youth through their empowerment and participation.

About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

Declining health of women of childbearing age and mothers and a growing number of children born with disabilities (confirmed by government and non-governmental sources). Reforms in the health care sector over the past 20 years have not improved the situation and many women, especially in rural areas, now go to health services as a last resort. Medical workers are not paid enough and hence not interested to work with girls and women to raise awareness on this issue. Women and mothers have no information about what can cause disability and how to deal with it during early stages. In general maternal and child health is one of the worst among ex-Soviet countries (and we're not doing well in comparision to Tajikistan which had the war for several years).

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

The idea is to combine 2 things: health + grants. Rural women put family's prosperity (but not neccessary health) on the top priority. The idea is to help women form self-help groups for 2 aims: for health issues and income-generating activities. These groups should have not only parents of disabled children but local medical and/or social workers too (at least 1 member). These groups will be given small mini-grants for the group or members' income-generating activities and will be requested to monitor and inform about their health indicators. Every 6 months they will evaluate their progress and will accordingly receive next small grants.
Impact: How does it Work

Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.

Month 1: agreement with partners (parent-led NGOs, medical and social establishments), chosing parents. Month 2: Interested parents and medical/social workers in the Talas region (a rural area) will go through a series of trainings on self-help groups, teamwork, income-generating activites and health issues (maternal and child health, disability, looking after a disabled child and his/her development). Month 3-4: After a self-help is formed they will have a set of health (possibly social) indicators discussed and accepted, against which they will be monitoring their own health. These indicators will be developed together with medical professionals. Month 3-4: The next step is receiving micro-grants based on a collective agreement and for income-generating activities for the benefit of the group. Every month they will be informing their coordinator on a monthly meeting their (incl. child's) progress on health and improve it when needed. The group will also be discussing the success of their income-generating activities. If a group has a clear progress then it will receive a next microgrant. Throughout their year we will request our participants to share their experience and succes with other women in their areas and involve more medical and social workers into their activities and groups. By the end of year 1 we will evaluate the progress and will report the outcomes of the project to other paren-led groups, our colleagues and relevant government agencies.
Sustainability

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?

There is no organizations in the country who use this approach. However there are quite many active women-led NGOs and several disability NGOs but almost none of them work in the Talas region on women empowerment. We know that as we've been working there for 1,5 year. Even several parent-led NGOs in the Talas region just provide day care services and are not involved in working with their parents members. Anyway the majority of women in rural areas have not been affected by health reforms or NGO programms as these were mainly aimed at their interests rather based on real needs and interests of women.
Team

Founding Story

we haven't shared this idea with anyone else.
About You
Organization:
"Kelechek HP" Public Foundation
About You
First Name

Azat

Last Name

Israilov

About Your Organization
Organization Name

"Kelechek HP" Public Foundation

Organization Country

, GB

Country where this project is creating social impact

, T

How long has your organization been operating?

1‐5 years

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Innovation
How long have you been in operation?

Still in idea phase, but looking to launch soon

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Access.

Social Impact
Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

The goal is to improve health of mothers and their children with disabilities through forming self-help groups for income-generating activities, and to reduce number of instituionalised children with disabilities.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

n/a

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

The projected impact is to help our government see that microcrediting can improve livelihoods of rural population and hence improve their health. Out pilot will show them the direct link between self-sustainability and maternal and child health. We believe that all regions of our country have this project implemented when self-help (or microcredit) groups formed around health and social issues not just around receiving and paying back money.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

- Political instability: since project will be working in the region this will not have effect in the project implementation.
- Currency fluctations: as the project will be providing small funding it won't affect the overal implementation.
- Self-help groups change or falling apart: it is possible but not a disaster as the groups will be based on agreements and membership not people. Group's coordinator will be responsible for finding other members.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1

Forming self-hel pgroups

Task 2

Improved health indicators

Task 3

Income-generating activities have been launched

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1

There are at least 5 sustainable self-help groups

Task 2

At least 4 of them reported improvements in their health indicators

Task 3

Income-generating activities have improved well-being in families

Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships

- HealthProm, UK charity, in its 2-year project in Kyrgyzstan on disability issues.
- "Nur Bala" NGO in the Talas region, our main implementing partner with HealthProm project. Working together since summer 2010 (but know much earlier).
- The Association of Parents of Disabled Children, working together since 2008 on child disability issues.
- "Nazik Kyz" NGO is a disability NGO led by a young lady with disabilities. We've known each other for about 6 years. We invite her as a trainer to our trainings.
- "My family and society" NGO of medical professionals that work on child health.

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?

We currently work on 2 projects targeting parents of disabled children in 3 regions (Talas, Issyk-Kul, Bishkek) and young people in the Talas region. The former one is aimed at empowering parent-led NGOs funded by ICCO, the latter one is funded by the Soros Foundation and is about training citizen journalists among young people.
In our new project we would like to continue working in the Talas region as it is one of the least developed regions in the country.

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

We're quite young NGO with a small team of 3 enthusiastic people who have good skills in project implementation and new technologies. We were the first in the country that have conducted the most 'techi' int'l conference on child disability issues in 2011. We were the first to open a disability web-site in the country in 2009 - www.kelechek.kg (now operated by ARDI). We were the first in the disability sector - to launch Google group which is the only and the biggest one in the country (over 90 subscribers). We were the first to start in 2009 the largest advocacy campaign on disability issues called "Driving against indifference!" which has now become annual (everytime it's covered by almost all leading mass media).
We try to be innovators in learning new and applying to practice.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list