mHealth: Sierra Leone
Project Name: Community Management
Mobile and Health Data System
Geographic Location: Mattru Jong, Bonthe,
Bonthe District
Project Timing: January 2012-December 2015
Health Programming Models: Timed and
Targeted Counseling (ttC)
Target Population: 22,000 households
CHWs Utilizing mHealth Solution: 207
Community Members Reached via mHealth: 17,192
Project Overview
Together, World Vision Sierra Leone and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in Sierra Leone
are working to increase access to maternal, newborn and child health. In Phase 1, community
health workers (CHWs) were trained in the delivery of Timed and Targeted Counseling (ttC),
an evidence-based framework developed and tested by World Vision. The MOTECH Suite
application allows CHWs to view overdue visits to households, register pregnant women and
their children for the program, make emergency referrals to their affiliated health center, and
collect household data for transmission to the health facility to support clinical and managerial
decision-making. The application, therefore, allows CHWs to expedite three major processes:
registration, visits and services, and referral and counter-referral. In addition, there is improved
adherence to the ttC visiting schedule by CHWs through SMS prompts for household visiting.
CHWs are conducting household visits even in the absence of SMS prompts. The SMS prompts
for household visiting, however, ensure that no visit is missed.
Trained CHWs target not only pregnant women and their children, but also the key decision
makers within each home. In collaboration with the District Health Management Team, World
Vision Sierra Leone has further trained a number of key health staff in the provision of
supportive supervision of CHWs. As the initial mHealth project is now mature, with the scale
up preparedness review scheduled to take place in the 3rd and 4th quarter of FY14, it was
Ministry
of Health
Center for
Global Health
mHealth: Sierra Leone
considered necessary to undertake a full monitoring visit of the program at Jong and KKS area
development programs (ADPs). It is felt that such a visit should be conducted in order to verify
CHWs in the program implementation also identify any opportunities or challenges faced.
Thereafter, recommendations can be provided to strengthen the planned scale-up going
forward. A total of 442 CHWs are expected to be prepared for scale up in Jong and KKS.
Plans have been made to train additional CHWs in delivery of the timed and targeted health
messages, as well as the use of the phones with the MOTECH Suite application, across the
whole district and subsequently at national level, totaling 2,500 CHWs.
mHealth Solution
Specifics of the mobile health solution utilized are delineated below:
 Technology: Motech Suite
 Mobile Phone: Nokia C2-05
 Mobile Network Operator: Airtel SL
Stakeholder Engagement
Key stakeholders at the international and national level collaborating on this mHealth initiative
include:
 MoHS
 Dimagi
 Airtel
 Trinity College of Dublin
 NatCOM
 Center for Global Health
 Grameen Foundation
 Government Local Council
Funding
Phase I: Irish Aid, UK AID & DFID
Contacts
Project Management
Name: Augustine Bockarie Trye
Title: mHealth Project Coordinator
Team/Office: WV Sierra Leone
Phone: +23279-000005/+23276-398900
Email: [email protected]
Technical Lead
Name: Christian Bomboo Johnson
Title: Tech. Advisor ICT Manager
Team/Office: WV Sierra Leone
Phone: +23276624518
Email: [email protected]
Ministry
of Health
Center for
Global Health