Accenture provides $3 million to fund Kenyan healthcare workers

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In a bid expand healthcare coverage across Kenya, Accenture have granted AMREF healthcare Africa $3 million to help with the education and training of up to 3,000 community health workers.

The grant will be released over two years and will specifically enable community healthcare workers access to additional tools and training using mobile technology. In some Kenyan communities, where even basic essentials are scarce, the role of health workers cannot be overstated.

Dr Peter Ngatia, AMREF’s Director for Capacity Building, recognises the impact mobile technology has, saying: “Traditional approaches are not sufficient in solving the health worker crisis that we currently face.  We encourage the application of innovative methods to scale up training because this is the only way we can impart skills to more health workers in a short period of time.”

Another key part of the Health Enablement and Learning Platform (HELP) is providing access to learning via mobile technology, an innovation that will allow workers to learn even if they are based in more remote areas. Launched in 2013, HELP uses Vodacom’s scalable mobile technology platform in order to effectively access as large an audience as possible.

Jill Huntley, the MD for Global Corporate Citizenship at Accenture said: “By harnessing the power of mobile, Amref Health Africa is delivering job and medical skills training at speed and scale – a critical component in improving the health as well as the long-term economic sustainability of communities in Africa.”

Accenture’s investment in mobile technology has the potential to transform many Kenyan communities in a fundamental way; their initiative goes to show that the unique African situation is the true test for innovation worldwide. The true test of a product, service, or idea today must surely be how it can be Africanised. 

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Read our profile on Vodacom here: http://www.africa.businesschief.com/company/35/Vodacom-Business-Africa

Accenture grants $1.4 million to AMREF in 2013 http://www.africa.businesschief.com/leadership/638/Accenture-grants-US14million-to-AMREF