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SIHI in Numbers

Hub achievements 2014-2024

Creating an enabling environment

Success Stories

SIHI Ghana

The mobile health (mHealth) project for cervical cancer screening is a capacity building and task strengthening approach for women in Ghana, where cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women. The project is integrated into Ghana’s community-based health planning and services strategy, thus involving community health officers. This project increased access to cervical cancer screening at the community level, benefiting both patients and healthcare providers, one of whom has this to say: “Cervical cancer screening was not part of my work and I had little knowledge about the condition and screening. However, after the training and the screening I have become an expert in screening for cervical cancer using VIA+ Cervicography. I have even trained new community health nurses who have posted to our facility.” 

Involves three integrated interventions for people with disabilities (PWD) in Ghana: local health system strengthening in disability-centred reproductive health, supporting disabled women/girls to gain access to less-disability friendly healthcare infrastructure using relatively low-cost solutions in line with Ghana’s Disability Act, and one-on-one regular sexual and reproductive health service (SRH) education, information provision, and referral. One of the PWDs who benefits from the innovation says:

“Before the project I could enter here with my tricycle, I have to get down and be supported by my wife when we seek family planning. Now I can move in with my tricycle without support. This gives us privacy. I do not to come the facility with someone to assist me get into the room for the service”

It is estimated that about 650,000 people living in Ghana are suffering from severe mental health disorders and more than 2 million are suffering from moderate to mild mental disorders with a treatment gap of 98%. MindIT Mental Health Service uses innovative technology to screen people for mental illness and provide them with affordable and easily accessible care. Through this platform, more than 5,000 callers have been linked to caregivers and provided with virtual counselling. A user of the short code service expressed her delight when contacted for a phone interview, “I was shy to visit the psychiatric hospital because of the stigma associated with such conditions. So, a colleague introduced me to the short code which I called. Through that I received telecounselling and continuous support from the caregiver that I have never met. It is a great initiative, especially in our settings where anybody visiting a psychiatric hospital is perceived to be mad.”

SIHI Nigeria

Parker’s Mobile Clinic provides affordable or free home healthcare to underserved individuals, including those who live in remote rural areas. It aims to address the challenges of non-affordability and inaccessibility of healthcare among marginalized populations in the rural areas of Nigeria, such as the elderly, the handicapped, and chronically sick individuals. One of the most appreciated features of the Clinic is its convenience and cost-effectiveness. Many clients prefer the service because it saves them the cost of transportation and the stress of a long journey, in addition to the relatively lower bills compared to hospitals. One of the clients said, “I started using the family planning service of the Parker’s Mobile Clinic while in school. It is the first family planning service I have used so far, and it’s very affordable. The services were easily available and I was able to get the service at the comfort of my home.”

Trash4Health was designed to target low-income earners, including farmers, women, and the elderly residing in rural areas within Nigeria. These individuals live below the poverty line and in some cases are not able to pay for primary care nor are they able to pay to benefit from the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). This initiative leverages on the concept of exchanging plastic waste to obtain health services. By doing this, the initiative works to reduce plastic waste in the environment through community participation while ensuring that beneficiaries of this scheme receive adequate care.

The non-profit organization aims to reduce maternal and child mortality in Nigeria by addressing SDGs 3 and 4 through data-driven activities aimed at sensitizing vulnerable groups such as women and adolescents. The Foundation works at the grassroots level with leadership and community-based trained volunteers who assist in awareness campaigns aimed at enlightening potential beneficiaries about life-saving maternal and child health services, as well as debunk certain myths. *Not finished. Should we still include?

SIHI Uganda

The Social, Emotional, and Economic Empowerment through Knowledge of Group Support Psychotherapy (SEEK-GSP) Project is a culturally sensitive psychological treatment for depression among people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Uganda.  The program treats depression among PLHIV using group support psychotherapy sessions that are delivered by community health workers. In the last 5 years, it has reached out to over 3,000 PLHIV. One beneficiary was quoted: “When I was enrolled into this counselling (GSP sessions) I was hopeless. I knew there was nothing left for me as an HIV positive person (but death). But when I enrolled into this program, it empowered me to gain confidence and started taking my medication. I also started investing each year in laying bricks and practicing agriculture and I now buy a cow every year. This project has helped me to realize that there is some importance in life.”

Amani Family Centre is a not-for-profit health facility that serves mothers living among the urban poor of Kanyogoga-Kampala City, thus contributing to the reduction of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in Uganda. The facility offers free healthcare services to pregnant mothers, including drugs and referral services to higher-level health facilities. It has facilitated more  than 700 live births and retained a high number of mothers attending the recommended antenatal care visits. One mother says, “Generally, the income of most of the people in Kanyogoga is very low. Most of the (private) health facilities ask for more money in order to access the health services. For the government health facilities, the health services are wanting. You can go to the government health facility early in the morning and it approaches noon without seeing a medical doctor. But when we got this health worker named Diane, she has helped our community because mothers are able to deliver at a free cost, and everyone who comes here is welcomed and cared for. So she is the only health worker we trust in this community. I delivered all my children from here.”

Opit Kic Widows Group (OPWIG) implements a care group approach to foster positive social behaviour change that mainly focuses on nutrition and food security, livelihood, sanitation, and hygiene. The organisation benefits internally displaced persons and refugees in Kiryandongo District, Uganda. The care group approach has increased communities’ knowledge concerning feeding of infants and young children, nutrition, and home management of child illnesses. One of the beneficiaries stressed how it has helped to address the misconceptions and myths of breastfeeding: “There is the first milk after the mother has given birth called colostrum, those days other mothers would say this dirty milk, why are you giving it to the baby because the colour is yellowish, but we came to learn that colostrum is very good for the baby.”

SIHI Malawi

A social innovation on improving access to mental health care through the integration of digital platforms was identified from the Call for Solutions in 2023. The innovation reached more than 500 Malawians who were affected by Cyclone Freddy in the same year. Tendai Machaya (Innovator) from St John of God College of Health Sciences explained that, “these natural disasters we are talking about, they are here to stay, now we are talking about El Nino which is coming, which might cause some distress to farmers, they need tele-counselling,” in a video documentary released in June 2024.

SIHI China/SESH

The pay-it-forward strategy in Guangzhou, China, has significantly impacted the MSM (men who have sex with men) community by increasing access to gonorrhoea and chlamydia testing. This approach, implemented at STD clinics and community-based organisations, offered free testing and the option for participants to donate towards future testing for others. The initiative led to a remarkable increase in testing uptake, with 54% of men in the pay-it-forward group getting tested compared to 6% in the standard care group in the last few years. One beneficiary shared, “I chose to donate because I received help and felt the need to give back. It provided me with an emotional outlet to balance myself. When I feel cared for, I want to offer support in return and hope this care continues to impact those in need.” This pay-it-forward model has not only provided essential health services but has also fostered a sense of community and mutual support among MSM in Guangzhou.

SIHI Indonesia

One of the identified social innovations in Indonesia, Harapan Fian, has been helping many marginalised individuals living on the streets of Yogyakarta obtain their rights to identification and healthcare. “I tried to make my own ID card but had no success. The stigma we face as marginalized people is our biggest challenge. When we went to the civil registration office, the officer assumed we were there to abandon our baby, even though we explained we wanted to make an ID,” said Ade Nurbaya, one of the beneficiaries. “Thankfully, we met Mas Didin (the Director of Harapan Fian) and asked for his help. Within a couple of weeks, he notified us to collect our ID from the civil registration office,” she added. Their program, Posyandu Jalanan, a health check-up initiative, has proven impactful in bringing healthcare to marginalised communities. “There is Posyandu every month where I can check my baby’s health condition. If they get sick, Harapan Fian told me not to worry and to take them to the nearest hospital,” said Sintia Ayu Rachmawati, another beneficiary.

SIHI India

Ayati Devices Pvt Ltd is a company incorporated in India on 9 February 2019 and generated at the DERBI Foundation, India. Ayati is a multi-disciplinary team with individuals from engineering and medical backgrounds. The team is passionate about using technology to bring innovative diagnostic and therapeutic medical solutions to the community. Their innovations aim to solve large-scale health problems and transform healthcare delivery. 

Ayati is focused largely on the problem of diabetic foot, which is one of the most common complications of diabetes in India and the world. Approximately 50% of diabetic patients develop neuropathy (nerve damage) within their lifetime. If left undetected, it can lead to complications such as diabetic ulcers and foot amputation. Ayati’s pivotal device, Vibrasense, is a portable, battery-powered neuropathy screening device that can help screen 70–100 patients with a single charge. This is ideal in camp situations in remote villages where even without any power supply, doctors can screen many subjects with diabetes for neuropathy. 

The device is approved by India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) and has received a CE marking. The device is undergoing additional clinical trials at the Chandramma Dayananda Sagar Institute of Medical Education and Research (CDSIMER) on 500 diabetic patients. This study has received ethics committee approval and has completed the recruitment of 300 subjects.

DERBI Foundation–supported innovation company Ayati Devices Pvt Ltd., in collaboration with Chandramma Dayananda Sagar Institute of Medical Education and Research (CDSIMER), organized a mega health camp at Krishnayyana Doddi Village (Kanakapura Taluk, Ramanagara District) on 19 November 2022 and at Udarahalli on 28 November 2022 along with members from the College of Physiotherapy-Dayananda Sagar University. 

A separate section of the camp was dedicated to foot screening of neuropathy in diabetic patients visiting the camp. Nearly 80 patients underwent neuropathy screening with the Vibrasense device. Those detected with neuropathy were given educational material about diabetic neuropathy and counseling about preventing complications.

SIHI LAC

The main strategy of the Comprehensive Care Model for Rural Health, one of the social innovation experiences identified through the innovation call in 2019, is the Chaquén Park in Sumapaz, Colombia, which was conceived by the community as a center of interaction and learning under the principles of food security and environmental protection. Currently, the park is an agro-environmental space of 2.25 hectares of demonstrative agricultural plots, where environmental education and training activities are carried out, as well as the promotion of sustainable agricultural activities from an economic, environmental, and human health standpoint. A beneficiary remarks, “…from Chaquén Park I have brought my little seeds and sowed them in my gardens with organic fertilizer, and that has really improved my health and the health of my family, to have a good healthy diet.”

Learn more about this social innovation here.

This initiative responded to the problem of the neglect of births with congenital defects associated with the Zika virus. From the meeting spaces during the brigades, social empowerment processes began to be generated. Initially, Colombia’s Instituto Nacional de Salud (INS) trained the mothers on health rights and legal procedures to develop their own management capacity, and at the same time, the mothers were creating strong bonds, sharing their personal experiences. Over time, they themselves became a support network, which would result in 2018 in the creation of the Milagros de Dios-los Niños del Zika Foundation in the city of Neiva, and the Ángeles sobre Ruedas Foundation in Barranquilla. A member of the community says, “…the brigades, apart from the fact that all the specialists come, activities are done so that one feels like a family. Activities were done, we shared and talked about how we were doing, how the children were doing, how their process was going at home, we talked as if we were a family…”

Learn more about this innovation here.

María Guadalupe, a 22-year-old Nicaraguan woman, learned about the online health promotion platform, JovenSalud.net, through Facebook. She was the first person in her family to go to university and entered just when her mother migrated from the country looking for new opportunities to support her daughter’s dream. María Guadalupe had to migrate to the country’s capital to attend university. The JovenSalud.net platform became a great support, especially the service “Looking for Advice?” Of it she says, “I found out about JovenSalud.net through Facebook. I wasn’t sure at first that I would like it, but I love the platform. I contacted the TeenSmart staff in my country and told them that I wanted to support and volunteer. From there, I became a leader of JovenSalud and a co-creator of the content for the new intervention ‘My Future Without Borders.’ The whole experience has been a delight!”

Learn more about JovenSalud here.

SIHI EVENT REPORTS

© 2025, TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases