Delivering Hope with Mobile Money in Tanzania
Posted: October 21st, 2011 | viewed: (931) | Comments: ( 0 ) | Topic: Blog Post, Insurance | Region: Africa
Mobile phones have been pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in developing countries for quite some time. From remote villages, farmers can access real time crop prices and new mothers can receive neonatal advice over SMS. Since 2009, Vodacom M-PESA and the Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT) are helping in providing a chance of treatment for women living with obstetric fistula – a painful and often ostracizing condition that follows prolonged and obstructed childbirths and causes chronic incontinence and paralysis. According to the UN statistics, Tanzania is one of 11 countries that together account for 65 per cent of all maternal deaths worldwide.
An estimated 3,700 new cases of obstetric fistula occur in Tanzania every year, but only about 1,000 get treated. CCBRT provides fistula surgery free of charge, but the high cost of transportation and accommodation to Dar es Salaam still prevents women from seeking treatment. Using M-PESA, CCBRT now sends money to fistula survivors to cover travel costs to the hospital the repair surgery. CCBRT uses ambassadors in the local villages, who may be former patients, health workers, or NGO Staff, in helping them refer women who require treatment. These ambassadors receive mobile money and buy bus tickets for the patients. Once the women arrive in Dar for their treatment, the ambassador also receives a small incentive via M-PESA.
The programme has had a dramatic effect on the number of women seeking treatment. According to CCBRT, since the start of the programme surgeries for fistula were 60% higher, whereas cleft lip/palate surgeries have increased by 75%. Additionally, in order to overcome lodging costs, which is the second biggest barrier to access treatment, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is supporting the renovation of a building near CCBRT’s hospital to accommodate women who are waiting for or recovering from surgery.
Simple solutions can often have a great impact in the lives of the poor. We hope that as adoption for mobile money services continues across the developing world, we continue to see more cross-sectoral work leveraging the mobile platform.
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