Together, we’re working to improve the lives of women and children around the globe.

Grand Challenges Canada (GCC) supports Bold Ideas with Big Impact®. We’re proud that three of our life-changing programs have been chosen for funding.

Philippines: Improving care for premature and small newborns

Thanks to GCC support, we are scaling up a program that is introducing a national health insurance benefit package. It will improve the care of premature and small newborns and drastically reduce the Philippines’ newborn mortality rate.

Mothers sitting with their premature newborns in intensive care unit.
Premature babies receive Kangaroo Mother Care inside the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit of the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital, in Tagbilaran, Bohol.

Project goals:

  1. Equip 27 hospitals and train their staff to deliver the services covered by this health insurance package, providing care to premature and small newborns for problems such as infections and breathing difficulties.
     
  2. Make sure pregnant women and their families learn about this new health insurance package. This includes offering advice on how to have a healthy pregnancy and manage preterm labour. 

By the end of the project, we estimate that 80 per cent of the estimated annual 262,500 premature and small births will have used the health insurance benefit package. 

Over 10 years, we expect this project will have inspired universal coverage of life-saving interventions and helped reduce the Philippines’ newborn mortality rate by at least 50 per cent.

South Africa: Empowering adolescent girls

With GCC’s support, we will build on our work with adolescents to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV.

Three young mothers sitting with their children.
Young mothers living with HIV, with their children, participate in the mothers2mothers programme at the Soshanguve Community Health Centre, in Soshanguve Township in South Africa.

How the project works:

  1. Young mothers who have used PMTCT and maternal, newborn and child health services are recruited to be Young Peer Mentors to other pregnant adolescent girls and young mothers, ages 15 to 24 years old. 
     
  2. Adolescent mothers are supported and inspired to participate in their own health-related decisions and, in turn, become health advocates for their peers.

The program empowers adolescent girls to help other girls get treatment and access health services.

Côte d’Ivoire: Reducing HIV among vulnerable young people

GCC is helping UNICEF provide an online platform that will ensure more young people get access to HIV self-testing, prevention and treatment. It’s estimated that 14 to 18 per cent of the most vulnerable young people in Cote d’Ivoire have HIV.

Smiling people pointing at the U-Report T-shirt.
The UNICEF Côte d'Ivoire youth engagement staff proposed innovative solutions to reach and counsel the most vulnerable young people in Cote d’Ivoire have HIV.

What is the project?

  1. U-Report is a mobile messaging platform that surveys young people and sends them life-saving information through text messages and social media channels.
     
  2. It will reach vulnerable young people in the hardest-to-reach areas, counsel them on sensitive topics and connect them to peer support groups and local health services.

The program has the potential to improve the lives of 56,000 young people in Côte d’Ivoire.