Power of Health in Every Mother's Hand: Aponjon Booklet Final Design 01

Launched in May 2011 by The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Johnson & Johnson, in collaboration with the United Nations Foundation, the mHealth Alliance, and BabyCenter LLC, the initiative aims to contribute to a reduction in maternal and neonatal mortality by improving health-seeking and preventive behaviors of pregnant women, new mothers, and their families. In Bangladesh, the initiative is being implemented under the brand name of 'Aponjon' by Dnet, a Bangladeshi social enterprise that works for promoting access to information and knowledge through the power of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Aponjon relies on multiple sources of support for ensuring financial sustainability, including the private sector, government agencies, and NGOs. The initiative is built upon the existing USAID and Government of Bangladesh's (GoB) maternal child health and family planning programs and is being managed through Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP). Aponjon is a mobile phone-based health information service for expecting and new mothers in Bangladesh, which was introduced in September 2011 in 13 locations of four districts with 1403 subscribers on a pilot basis. On completion of a successful pilot, Aponjon kicked off its national scale operation in December 2012 in more than 24 districts of Bangladesh. Currently available all over the country through mobile network, the service continues to grow its outreach operation, with a target to cover all 64 districts of the country. Aponjon aspires to reach more than 2 million expecting women and new mothers by 2015. The service is available to subscribers of all telecom operators in Bangladesh, and community agents from the Outreach partner organizations are working in their areas to register expecting and new mothers and their gatekeepers (family members) to the service. A customer service center reachable through the unique short code 16227 is operational from morning till late night to assist customers for registration process and to respond to their queries. In addition, to serve the active Aponjon clients over telephone, a counseling line, named 'Aponjon Counseling Line' has also been set up. The 'Aponjon Counseling Line' is connected through the current customer service center and has doctors with specialist knowledge of obstetrics and pediatrics answering to health queries and providing solutions to Aponjon clients. Aponjon received financial support in form of seed grants from USAID and Johnson and Johnson. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) of the Government of Bangladesh is the official government partner of Aponjon. Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited, a leading manufacturer of pharmaceuticals in Bangladesh, is the first founding partner of Aponjon, providing financial support to the program. Other than that, Lal Teer Seeds Ltd. of Multimode Group is also a corporate partner of Aponjon, providing in-kind support to the program. Aponjon also has retail partnership with Agora Superstores Ltd. of Rahimafrooz Ltd. for retailing the Sponsor-a-mother gift pack at their superstore outlets. Aponjon has been successful in reaching out to the mass audience through a media campaign in print media, television, radio, and outdoors. The campaign successfully managed to reach the target audience and motivate a large number of them to take the service. The campaign saw a huge boost in the calls to the customer service center for queries and registration and also a large number of self-registrations through SMS. Aponjon has also been recognized for its efforts, winning the mBillionth Award South Asia 2013 in the category of m-Woman & Children.