Educational Program

Allya Paramita Koesoema of the eHealth and Telemedicine Society in Indonesia will develop a pro-vaccination campaign to counteract the widespread negative views of vaccinations in Indonesia by engaging religious leaders and health workers in local communities to directly address misconceptions. Anti-vaccination narratives, many based on religious misconceptions, have spread through the country, largely via social media, leading to a decrease in child vaccination coverage.

Robert Steinglass of JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc in the U.S. will teach community members to use traditional methods such as a drum to signal the arrival of a vaccination team to villages in India to improve vaccination coverage. Children in remote villages are vaccinated by outreach services. Although visits are scheduled on specific days, they often change, and there is no simple way to inform all the relevant families. Sound can travel long distances and is used to call communities together in many cultures.

Innovators are testing whether a mental health intervention for mothers who are victims of sexual violence has a significant and positive effect on brain development of their infants. The intervention will be delivered as part of a post-natal health program, using a delivery system that can be duplicated in similar low-resource environments.

An innovative global model for prevention of diarrheal deaths with ORS and zinc that uses faith networks in Nigeria to identify and train a cadre of ""ORS moms"to serve as vehicles for behaviour change messaging and community-based suppliers.