Democratising healthcare in Mozambique
Sixty-eight percent of Mozambique’s citizens live in rural areas, 24.2% have access to electricity and 46.1% are living below the poverty line. When it comes to providing digital solutions for an entire population during a health crisis, it’s vital that everyone is adequately served. Valter Cumbi, CEO of Source Code describes why his work aims to reach rural communities in need during the pandemic and beyond.
It might be tempting to create a data-rich expensive application to support healthcare resilience but many people in rural Mozambique do not have access to the infrastructure to support such measures and this means they are unable to find readily available health information and end up being ill-informed or unprepared to deal with the impact of something like the COVID-19 pandemic and the stresses it applies to existing healthcare systems.
“When people are not informed, they make unhealthy life decisions,” says Valter. “For instance, without cleaning and treating water people can make themselves easily susceptible to things like cholera. If they are unable to access information about the importance of contraception or sexual health details, they can leave themselves open to spreading disease. All of this puts an extra burden on the national health system and to avoid this, prevention really is one of the best methods.”
To help support a more resilient health system in Mozambique, Source Code has created Pensa *660# — a multi-channel and bi-directional mHealth platform that is available for free, on all operators and is designed to provide health information and services to the people living in rural areas and with low tech phones.
“We need to focus on solutions that fit our reality, as opposed to trying to make something that wasn’t designed for this environment.”
“There is 100% too much focus on smartphones and not enough on lower-end models,” says Valter. “We see this repeated over and over. The Ministry of Health started to focus heavily on social media but the most optimistic numbers point out that there are only 3 million social media users in Mozambique out of a population of over twenty-eight million people. We need to focus on solutions that fit our reality, as opposed to trying to make something that wasn’t designed for this environment.”
Innovation beyond profit
When Valter first heard about the pandemic, there had not yet seen a huge impact in Mozambique. When the wider threat had been identified, mHealth became a priority for the Ministry of Health. However, the focus on this technology had been languishing just before it became essential. “It’s worthwhile mentioning that Just before that we actually contemplated switching off our mhealth platform,” says Valter. “There was little support, even though there was a clear need for it. I think health information didn’t seem as important at that time. We were slowly realizing that maybe this isn’t something that is as relevant to have right now. Maybe it’s something that we can switch off and a couple of 1000 people won’t be happy about it. But it turns out, just at that moment, it gained engagement from stakeholders. It was a good thing that we had decided to give it another shot.” The Pensa platform recently reached 3 million users; a milestone accomplished with the valuable relationship and engagement of the Ministry of Health in Mozambique.
“It’s worthwhile mentioning that Just before that we actually contemplated switching off our mhealth platform.”
But Source Code persevered due to a company cultural vision of going beyond just providing an app. “A long time ago the innovation itself stopped being about making money, and it started being more about providing a service, providing an important service,” says Valter. “I don’t know if you can call it a higher calling, we see a purpose to it that goes beyond money. But we also see, and we also believe that it is actually the right type of tool to have in this environment. I don’t think there is another mHealth platform in Mozambique that reaches as many people by far. So it really is important and it really is what people need to live healthier and safer lives.”
Pensa, looking forward
Along with its current information services, Source Code has recently rolled out a COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy survey. This work is designed to help decision-making for the Ministry of Health and then Valter and his team have plans for similar services in the coming year. “We want to keep on rolling out more services for the measurement and feedback of health facilities,’’ he says. “Maybe even registration for vaccinations. There are quite a lot of possibilities as to exactly how you use the platform. But ideally, we need to provide more services to complement the information.”
Looking ahead, Valter sees a global division in relation to the pandemic. “I think what we’re going to see in the Western world and in countries like Mozambique are going to be quite different,” he says. “We’re already seeing huge vaccination rollouts and countries like the U.S. and the UK, but over here it’s going to take time to get the amount of vaccines we need and implement the required logistics for distribution and information to convince people that they should have the vaccine. It’s something we need to find a way to deal with effectively while not crippling the entire health system along the way. While we want people to have their vaccinations to combat COVID-19, we don’t want people to miss their regular vaccinations for things like Rubella.”
In continuing his work, Valter is inspired by his own experience and has a clear vision for his work to help others. “I see very frequently, the privileges that I’ve been essentially allowed, I mean, very little things, there’s a lot that we take for granted. Little things like just no roof over your head, education, not having to worry about tomorrow, and what will happen the next day,” he says. “As I’ve aged, I think I’ve realized that those around me, particularly Mozambique, and similar countries, I assume, are far less privileged. It’s upon us to help improve the country for everybody. So that’s my inspiration, trying to make Mozambique a little bit better with the privilege and advantages that I’ve been given.”
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