Touching Lives June 29, 2020

Mothering the mother

Save a mother foundation is the brain child of Dr. Shiban Ganju, his association with public health has given him insight into the unmet needs of the poor. He saw that the economically poor communities, especially women, are always at the receiving end due to high burden of sickness, lack of knowledge about basic healthcare and lack of resources to combat disease. Traditional supply side solution of increasing the supply of manpower, drugs, infrastructure to cure the sick is expensive, hence unaffordable. Such communities need healthcare solutions, which are simple, scalable and sustainable. He was anguished to know that and decided to help the marginalized.

He figured out that modifying health behaviour of a community is probably the least expensive but an effective method to reduce disease burden and that health maintenance is an individual and community responsibility. This paradigm prevents disease and fosters an intelligent demand, which holds the system accountable for healthcare rights.

These thoughts gave birth to ‘Save a Mother’ foundation in 2008 that developed an effective Social Persuasion (SAM-ESP) model for health care support and behavior change for the poor in India. The SAM model has been proven in over 3200 villages & 2 urban slums in 10 districts representing approximately 6.2 million people in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. For less than 15 Rupees per capita per year, SAM has dramatically improved health outcomes in underserved rural areas.

The successful ESP method used to curb maternal mortality has been utilized for other healthcare issues such as tuberculosis detection and population stabilization. By partnering with local health organizations and governmental authorities, SAM ensures the sustainability of its solutions. SAM believes that its low cost Effective Social Persuasion Platform can be used to solve not only healthcare problems but also many other social issues.