Category: events

Back on 29^th May 2014 Aponjon had reached a landmark of 500,000 subscribers only to pick up more speed. In just a matter of 4 months, the subscriber base grew exponentially to one million on 21 September 2014. To commemorate this achievement and to honor invaluable contribution of all development partners, a celebration event was organized on February 5^th, 2015.

Mr. Syed Monjurul Islam, Honorable Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was present as Chief Guest. Ms. Melissa Jones, Director, Office of Population, Health, Nutrition and Education (OPHNE), USAID Bangladesh also graced the event as special guest. The chair Dr. Ishtiaq Mannan, Chief of Party, MaMoni Health Systems Strengthening Project inaugurated the event sharing the story of how Aponjon grew from being just an idea to the largest Mhealth service in the world followed by the Keynote presentation of Dr. Ananya Raihan, Executive Director of Dnet.

A short Question-Answer session followed the keynote presentation where Dr. Ananya Raihan and Dr Ishtiaq Mannan answered questions from the audience. Afterwards, the audience was entertained with a short audio-visual centering on the theme of “Celebrating One Million”.

Among other guests, DR. Md. Shah Nawaz ADG (Administration) Directorate General of Health Services, Mohakhali, Dhaka, Special Guest Ms. Melissa Jones, Director, OPHNE, USAID Bangladesh and Mohammad Fazlul Hoque Joint Secretary & Director Planning also spoke at the event. They shared their invaluable insights on the importance of such an mHealth initiative and expressed best wishes and support towards Aponjon.

More than 100 guests including 30 high officials from the offices of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and other Leading NGOs and Aponjon partners were present at the event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desh TV (A national television channel of Bangladesh) highlights Aponjon on their program called “Jiboner Golpo” (story of life). This program features the interview of the Chief Program Coordinator of Aponjon.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9MKBsHXCGY&feature=youtu.be

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MAMA Bangladesh participated in the GSMA mHealth Summit held on 28th May to June 1st, 2012 in Cape Town, South Africa. The purpose of the visit was to

• Attend MAMA Cross Country Learning Lab. Share top challenges and learning with MAMA Global and MAMA SA teams
• Present MAMA Bangladesh during MAMA Side Session and moderate Table Discussion based on subject area expertise to assist organizations in developing MNCH mobile messaging services
• Attend GSMA mHealth Summit/update on projects running in mHealth domain/common challenges faced/possible solutions and networking.

 This trip was instrumental in global sharing of MAMA country program implementations, lessons learnt, achievements and challenges.  As a next step, MAMA Bangladesh, by virtue of being the first pilot country, would like to contribute in MAMA global learning modules.

The Summit sessions were a good overview of the mHealth state of the industry and the     potential of using mobile to support health systems and improve health outcomes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On March 21, the team visited Goyainghat Upazila and spoke to the clients and their family members of the service and also non gatekeepers of the service. The team appreciated the feedback received from the “Aponjon” beneficiaries. They thanked the families connected with “Aponjon” service. They also appreciated the  support provided by the outreach partners and expressed their gladness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Ananya Raihan has participated in the mHealth Summit held in Washington D.C from 7^th to 11^th   December. Dr. Raihan presented the following four papers in the summit.

1. Localizing mHealth Content for behavioural change: Learning from Aponjon (MAMA Bangladesh)

Fida Mehran and Atik Ahsan, Dnet, Bangladesh

2. mHealth Service design context and challenges in low literate and high mobile penetrate country like Bangladesh

Hasan Muhammed Zahidul Amin, Dnet, Bangladesh

3. Reaching out to genuine subscribers through cost efficient sales channels

Rizwana Rashid Auni, Dnet, Bangladesh

4. Connecting mBank to mHealth: Aponjon (MAMA Bangladesh) Experience

Atik Ahsan, S M Atiqur Rahman, Dnet, Bangladesh.

 

 

Aponjon at Third Global Symposium: The Third Global Symposium on Health Systems Research was organized at Cape Town, South Africa from 29 September to 3 October, 2014. Along with the other participants Dr. Fida Mehran, Head of Content, Dnet and Ms. Rizwana Rashid Auni were also present there. This event was also communicated through social media.

Aponjon was represented by Atik Ahsan in the ICTD 2013 conference in South Africa where he presented his poster paper on the findings of phone surveys with Aponjon subscribers. This presentation helped highlight Aponjon’s services among academics and ICT practitioners. It was the first for Aponjon, a MAMA service to be represented at the ICTD forum.

 

 

On the event of ‘Safe Motherhood Day’ on 28^th May 2013, a fair was organized jointly by DGFP and Channel I, one of the most popular satellite television channels. Similar to DGFP, Channel I also has a great focus on social causes in all its initiatives. Aponjon participated in the fair organized at the Channel I premises at Tejgaon, Dhaka.

The program, telecasted live over national media was inaugurated by the Honorable State Minister, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Capt. (Rtd.) Mozibur Rahman Fakir, MP. In his speech, he specifically mentioned the ingenuity of Aponjon and also introduced Aponjon to the guests and other attendees at the event, which was a welcome pride for the Aponjon team.

Another key feature of the program was displaying a recorded video overview on the Aponjon service.

Other than the main program, there were several stalls featuring different programs working towards maternal and child health. Aponjon was featured in one of the stalls, hosted by MCHIP, the chief implementation partner of the Aponjon program. The Aponjon stall featured brochures, booklets and flyers on the Aponjon service, which were distributed among the visitors. The keen interest about the Aponjon services among the visitors kept the stall quite busy. Visitors were given briefs and information about the services through different videos, TV and Radio Commercials. At one corner of the stall, was Aponjon’s special attraction, the Aponjon Sponsor a Mother Gift Package. The gift package is the product launched a few days back at some of the supershop outlets in Dhaka, which contains some gifts and token of gratitude to the buyers, who, through buying one of these gift packs are sponsoring one underprivileged mother get the service for the whole tenure of 89 weeks for absolutely free.

 

 

USAID-MCHIP-VoA delegation visited Aponjon beneficiaries in Sylhet: A high level delegation from USAID-MCHIP and Voice of America visited ‘Aponjon’ service beneficiaries of MAMA Bangladesh initiative at Umorpur Union of Balaganj Upazila under Sylhet District on May 8, 2012 morning. The purpose of this visit was to understand the various community level activities being implemented by the USAID supported projects in the area of integrated safe motherhood, newborn care, and family planning. The members of the delegation comprised of Khadijat L. Mojidi and Dr. Umme Salma Jahan Meena of USAID Bangladesh; Ms. Koki Agarwal, MCHIP Washington; Brian Armstead, Voice of America (VoA) Washington and Dr. Nawal Baabbad, USAID Yemen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 20^th March the team visited SSFP clinic at Balaganj, managed by Shimantik, a local NGO. The purpose was to see the customer acquisition process through standalone facility. During the pilot phase, this clinic is being used as a standalone facility and registered successfully more than 50 clients within a month. The team also visited one of the “Aponjon” client’s houses where a number of subscribers including their family members were present. Community health workers or MaMoni program were also present. Ms. Gagnaire and Ms. Kern spoke to “Aponjon” beneficiaries and interviewed the community agents.