Indian NGO ARMMAN Wins Prestigious $1.5 Million Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship

ARMMAN will leverage the funds to expand its current reach and pilot innovations to improve maternal and child health outcomes across India

MUMBAI, April 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --  ARMMAN, an India-based non-profit organization, has been awarded the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship 2020 for its exceptional work in the maternal and child health space in India. The Skoll Awards are presented annually to select organizations with the ability to drive sustained change on the world's most pressing problems and carries a monetary investment of USD 1.5 million, along with other support.

ARMMAN is one of five organisations to win this year, and the only one from Asia and Africa, selected from an initial shortlist of 700 organizations. ARMMAN works towards empowering mothers and enabling healthy children in India. It is implementing the largest mobile health programs in the world (Kilkari and Mobile Academy) in partnership with the Government of India.

Founder, Chairperson and Managing Trustee of ARMMAN, Dr. Aparna Hegde shares, "We are honoured and humbled to receive this prestigious award, especially in these uncertain times. The pandemic has made us confront this most implacable of truths: health is the foundation of all human life and enterprise. A robust primary health care service is a necessary backbone of an efficient functioning society and investment in maternal and child health ensures that. While our existing programs, mMitra and Kilkari, continue to provide preventive care information weekly to pregnant women and mothers with children up to the age of one at a time when routine care is difficult to access, it is also nimble enough to enable us to provide critical information about COVID-19 to underprivileged pregnant women and mothers, who are especially vulnerable during the current pandemic."   

ARMMAN's programs have reached more than 18 million pregnant women, mothers and children and enabled refresher training of more than 160,000 community health mobilisers (ASHAs). The programs cover 16 out of the 28 states in India, with plans to reach 21 states in the next two years.

Mr. Devendra Kumar Ojha, Deputy Director General, Statistics at the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) says, "I would like to congratulate Dr. Aparna Hegde and team ARMMAN for winning the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship 2020 for their outstanding contribution in public health. MoHFW, GoI has partnered with ARMMAN for implementation of Kilkari and Mobile Academy initiatives for strengthening Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) services, especially in rural areas. We appreciate and acknowledge their contribution to MoHFW in RCH related activities. We are confident of their capabilities of scaling these programs successfully across the country to support pregnant women, and their families, and ASHAs (community health mobilisers)."

Kilkari will reach 19 million new subscribers over the next 3 years and 216,000 more ASHAs will be trained through Mobile Academy.

Dr Sitaram, Medical Head at Tata Trusts says, "Tata Trusts has been working with ARMMAN since 2015 and is currently supporting the Kilkari and Mobile Academy programs. ARMMAN effectively leverages mobile technology to create impactful programs for the mothers and children of India.  This award is a recognition of their efforts."

The Skoll Foundation's year-long selection process involved a detailed evaluation of various functions including finance, impact, governance, research, technology, monitoring and interactions with stakeholders, including the government. A deeper understanding and assessment of ARMMAN's programs was carried out through multiple field visits. Traditionally, the recipients of the Skoll Award are announced in the presence of delegates from over 100 countries at the week-long Skoll World Forum in Oxford, UK. This year the Skoll World Forum was moved online.

About ARMMAN

ARMMAN leverages technology to create cost-effective, highly scalable solutions to improve the health and well-being of under-served mothers and children in India. It has a 360 degrees approach: it uses mobile technology to send weekly timed and targeted critical healthcare information to pregnant women and mothers with children until age one and on the other hand, it uses a mobile platform to provide refresher training to front-line health workers (ASHAs).

ARMMAN's collaborative model, including a partnership with 100 government hospitals, 43 NGOs and the Government of India, has enabled this non-linear scale in a short time.

About Dr. Aparna Hegde

Dr. Aparna Hegde is an internationally renowned Urogynecologist and Founder and Managing Trustee of ARMMAN. She is an Associate Professor (Hon) of Urogynecology and Head of the upcoming Department of Urogynecology at Cama Hospital, Mumbai, India's first dedicated comprehensive University-based Center of Excellence in the field. Aparna has a lifelong commitment to minimize the preventable mortality and morbidity of mothers and children in India. This is born out of preventable deaths she witnessed during her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology in Mumbai. Aparna has a Master's in Science from Stanford University and completed her Urogynecology Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Florida. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Urogynecology Journal and is an accomplished researcher who has done pioneering work in the field of 2D and 3D USG of the pelvic floor which she teaches internationally. She is also a TED 2020 Fellow.

For further details please contact

Kruti Dalal
Phone: +91-9930434155
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Swati Saxen
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