Projects:ChildGrowthMonitor
| Description | Saving lives through quick and reliable data on malnutrition. |
|---|---|
| Has website | https://ChildGrowthMonitor.org |
| Persons working on | |
| Other projects... | |
Won't somebody please think of the children? We do!
Contents
34C3
- Still looking for an assembly to fit in!
- We want to raise awareness for the problem and our solution
- It would be great to get more volunteers to work on our solutions
- We will bring 5 Google Project Tango Smartphones - if you want to volunteer please hit us up so we bring enough hardware
- We're looking forward to interesting discussions on ethics and privacy
Quick, accurate data on malnutrition for the goal of zero hunger.
Problem
Existing measurement of malnutrition remains extremely unreliable because of human error.
- In emergency situations, such as the current crisis in South Sudan, Aid organizations often have difficulties to understand the magnitude of malnutrition, which is essential for a timely response.
- Nutrition Front-line workers, such as the Anganwadi worker in India, frequently fail to detect acute malnutrition due to wrong measurement or non-measurement of children (while faking the charts). This leads to prolonged malnutrition and death of children.
- Also, rural mothers themselves are often not aware about the malnutrition of their children and take measures too late.
- Even national data on malnutrition is frequently disputed due to mistrust in survey methodologies and data accuracy.
SMART surveys, which are best practice for localized surveys, require highly-experienced staff, and with a sample size of 400 children costs about 30.000€ and take about one month.
Solution
We provide a game-changer in the measurement and data processing of malnourished children. It is a fool proof solution based on a mobile app using augmented reality.
- The mobile app scans children under 5 in 3D to determine height and weight and therefore establishes the wasting rate. This is the main indicator for detecting moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and severe acute malnutrition (SAM). SAM children are considered at risk of death.
- The mobile app is simple, fast, and provides accuracy and accountability in data collection (as the scans are saved), while further data options could be added per the survey design.
The app can save the lives of thousands of children every year. It helps aid agencies to adequately respond to emergencies, and it helps front-line workers in emergencies but also in chronic relief situations to detect malnourished children and help them better. Further, this solution could be integrated in survey methodologies, MIS of health service provider, or even mobile apps for the mass market.
- We make it Open Source to let everyone participate
- https://github.com/Welthungerhilfe/ChildGrowthMonitor
Target Group
- Aid agencies that work on nutrition in emergency and chronic situations, such as WHO, UNICEF, Welthungerhilfe, CONCERN, ACF, Save the Children, World Vision or MSF, as well as associated consultants that work on surveys and nutrition assessments.
- National Health or Nutrition Agencies, such as the Integrated Child Development Services in India, or the Ministry of Health in Ethiopia, and specifically their surveyors and front-line workers.
- National and international civil society organizations and research organizations that do independent surveys or monitoring of state services.
- In the longer-term, private users measure their children.
Reasons to Belief
- Augmented reality solutions exist but haven‘t been used in a meaningful way yet. With interfaces to existing solutions like smartmethodology.org we make an impact right away
We will be the first one to make a mark with the technology!
- Very high relevance: Millions of children that could have been saved, die of malnutrition. It will change the way governments and NGOs like Welthungerhilfe address malnutrition and measure success.
- Expertise: WHH is an organization specialized on food and nutrition and connected to relevant experts
- Scalability: The technology could be easily scaled to households and might be used in manifold ways for social applications.
