AHAI founders realized the growing need for medical care, especially for children in the developing world and particularly in Nigeria. Many rural areas as it were are not aware of basic healthcare needs such as vaccinations against childhood killer diseases, well child care checkups, and basic medicines when they are sick. This has created a growing problem in this area, as children are often ill with preventable, treatable, or curable illnesses and do not live up to their potential both developmentally and intellectually. This disrupts not only their growth and well being, but also that of the family, Community, town and the country as a whole. They realized that if children are healthy and educated, then as they mature, they are able to get better jobs, and, thus provide for their family. This support, by the now adult children, causes the village and the entire community to prosper. This prosperity will spread throughout the region and country.For the next three years AHAI hopes to Re-awake the Primary Health Care Delivery System in Nigeria . Primary health is defined as “essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology, made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self-reliance and self determination”. It is the first level of contact of individuals, the family and community with the national health system, bringing health care as close as possible to where the people live and work, and constitutes the first element of a continuing health care process.

It is an approach to health and a spectrum of services beyond the traditional health care system. It includes all services that play a part in health, such as income, housing, education, and environment. Evidences abound showing that for the people at the rural area to have good health care, Health services should be brought close to them and as well involving them in the planning and subsequent implementation. These tend to ensure equity in access to quality health services with community ownership and participation. The Conference will bring together stakeholders in the health sector to refashion the way forward in realizing one of the Millennium Goal Development (MGD) i.e. not making Health for All a mirage.

There are millions of poor who cannot access and afford quality healthcare despite the presence of healthcare providers, because of the random and scattered presence of the service providers, sometimes cluttered in some areas, while absent in some others.

The most vulnerable and affected sections of society are children and women. AHAI is striving to change this through pilot initiatives involving convergence of community health service providers to improve the health status of women and children, through a fixed-day services strategy. Under this initiative, AHAI is trying to strengthen the existing governmental system through convergence of all health services providers by mobilizing the community for a demand-driven health program at the village level. The program would also be researched to impact the government health policy. The program would attempt to increase the access of maternal health services in various villages and towns. The program aims to impact around 10,000 families in the far north where the female literacy is as low as 15 per cent. The present health service delivery system in remote areas is almost negligible. Most health-centers do not function, Mobile Medical Unit are not in place, poor infrastructure and lack of labor rooms make institutional deliveries impossible, no apparatus /equipment, large-scale absenteeism and vacancies, poorly trained and unmotivated manpower are the reasons for the near absence of health care services. AHAI is willing to join hands with any NGO working in the area of the Mother and Child Health - to “Improve Mother and Child Health through Quality Health Care Services”. The program aims at ensuring that: ? at least 60-70 per cent of the pregnant women receive complete ANC and Immunizations during their pregnancy.
? at least 60-70 per cent of the pregnant women receive complete ANC and Immunizations during their pregnancy
? about 80% of the risk pregnancies are identified and referred to Emergency Obstetric Care
? at least 60% of the deliveries are conducted under the supervision of trained personnel
? malaria morbidity is reduced among pregnant women and children are completely immunized by 12 months.
Under this initiative, AHAI will sensitize the community on issues relating to prevention and control of Malaria, Safe motherhood & Child Care aspects and different health services available.

PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION/STATEMENT:

Interestingly, the reality of the time is that the world has become a small village by virtue of the revolution in the information industry and the overwhelming advancement in information technology. Our graduates must be equipped to function as technocrats in the field not only for Nigeria but also for the whole world. Sadly though, our (Nigerian) graduates are stark illiterates when it comes to knowledge about IT, this also put them at disadvantage among their contemporaries in the committee of nations and equally hampers the general development of the country as a whole. This must be corrected if the nation has to move forward. Nigeria can become globally competitive in the promotion of intellectual capital since we have the human resources, all we need do is to direct, motivate, train and re-train them.

All over the world over 70 million young people are unemployed and many more are struggling for survival on low wages and in poor working conditions, often in the informal economy. Young people are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as adults. The majority of the world's young people, (about 85 per cent,) live in developing countries and this figure are growing at an astronomical rate. In order to avoid wasting the world's most precious human resources and to build stable and productive societies, a forward-looking strategy to create employment for young people is urgently needed. Juvenile delinquency and drug abuses are often direct consequences of insufficient opportunities for proper education, productive employment and meaningful participation at all levels. The above named reasons have awakened the need to train and re-train our young graduates, so as to make them relevant in the IT world and meet up in the Information Technology “jet age” especially in the areas of Repairs & Maintenance of Computers, Indigenous Software Development, Networking, setting up IT related businesses such as - Rural Telephony, Computer Repair and Maintenance unit, Networking and Resources centers etc.

Thus, AHAI will seek to create an environment for young graduates in Nigeria to develop themselves in various areas, create and execute entrepreneurial opportunities in all endeavors and especially Information Technology as essential means for individual career development and nation building even in rural areas.

Agriculture: Establish training outfit and pilot farms – Fish farming, Vegetable farms, Crass cutters, Rabbitries,
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AHAI SMS Alerts/Reminders Scheme:

The role of SMS in achieving the MDGs has been exploited by several countries. AHAI is committed to pilot this scheme in Nigeria and to make it work.

One of the Millennium development goal is to Reduce Child Mortality. AHAI hopes to achieve by the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT).

ACHIEVING MELLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL 4 (MDGs 4) – REDUCTION IN CHILD MORTALITY USING ICT AS REQUIRED BY TARGET #18 OF THE MDGs

Of the 10.5 million deaths among children under five in 2003, about one-quarter were attributable to diseases that are already, or soon will be vaccine-preventable –WHO Data

Immunization is among the most successful and cost-effective public health interventions. Immunization programs have led to eradication of smallpox, elimination of measles and poliomyelitis in regions of the world, and substantial reductions in the morbidity and mortality attributed to diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. Nonetheless, more deaths can be prevented through optimal use of currently existing vaccines.

The successes of vaccination/immunization in reduction of child mortality have been well researched, documented and established. Sadly however data show no Sub-Saharan African country is on track to meet the deadline in meeting the MDGs-4 by the year 2015 largely as a result of compliance. (See attached fact-Sheet document).

The Federal Government in recognition of the urgency to increase child vaccination has embarked on an increase financial support to MDGs, including support for MDGs-4 by a significant increase in availability of vaccines and immunization centres/campaigns. However the biggest challenge remains creating the awareness campaign as well as timely reminders to parents of under five.

SMS Alerts/Reminders can play a major role in creating awareness as well as sending timely reminders to parents when their children are due for a particular vaccine as well as notifying them of the closest immunization centre, finally it will act as a feedback center allowing parents to provide a feedback on the status of their immunizations, this feedback will provide empirical data to measure the success of the SMS campaign, availability of vaccines, and other vaccine/immunization related information as well as their geographical spread.

Methodology:

The solution is built on a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution fully integrated to an SMS platform allowing for Data capture, History Maintenance, Reminders and Data analysis to create insights/intelligence into collected Data and feedback, it also has the capability to tracking immunization status of individuals. Finally, it includes a robust report system.

1. Children are registered by hospitals or by parents by either
a. Completing a basic form & sent to our Health Centres
b. Or simply by sending a text to a specific number eg. d MDGs-4 published number
c. To register a child in the system you simply send an SMS with the child’s details e.g MDG4 FIRSTNAME LASTNAME DOB SEX AREA
d. As soon as the SMS is received an automatic notification is sent to the parent acknowledging the registration
e. When a vaccination is due parents receive 2 SMS
i. 1st SMS contains the reminder and details of the Vaccination to be received e.g. Yellow Fever Reminder:- Dapo is due for a yellow fever vaccination, please do so if he has not taken one yet. …………State government/governor/ministry of Health
ii. 2nd SMS contains details of the Primary Healthcare center close to you
2. Within 2weeks you received an SMS enquiring about the status of the vaccination, the response receive helps track the immunization program
3. All SMS are sent to a toll-free number (both incoming/outgoing SMS are paid for by the MDGs-4 thus allowing for maximum participation)
4. Other media such as print, Television, and Radio are used to create program awareness

The cost for implementing this solution viz-a-viz its benefits make it more urgent in saving the lives of Children in Nigeria.

AHAI, is also focused to use this data to monitor the progress of these children. At the age of 5 years it would remind parents the need to register their children or ward in a school. It would continue to monitor the progress of the child because of the feed-back option available. It is hoped that with time the data could be used for planning purposes.