SUVITA

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STARTED: Incubation Program 2019

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Varsha Venugopal

Co-founder

SEED GRANT: $50,000

WEBSITE: https://www.suvita.org/

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Fiona Conlon
Co-founder

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Suvita works to increase uptake of childhood immunizations to combat vaccine-preventable diseases through building a network of immunization ambassadors and sending SMS reminders directly to parents.

CURRENT OR PREDICTED IMPACT:

  • Enrolled over 400,000 caregivers for SMS reminders about vaccinations

  • Recruited 555 immunization ambassadors in Saran district, Bihar, who are expected to reach over 8,000 children

  • Sent SMS messages with information on proning for home care of COVID-19 to 340,000 enrolled users

ACHIEVEMENTS: 

  • Program and partnerships

    • Signed an MoU with the Government of Maharashtra to roll out SMS reminders across the state; launched reminders for pregnancy care and childhood vaccinations in Satara district (2021)

    • Received approval from our government partner, the State Health Society, to expand SMS reminders for vaccination in Bihar to a second district - Patna (2021)

  • Learning

    • Demonstrated the operational feasibility of a remote model for identifying community influencers and recruiting them as volunteer immunization ambassadors

    • Completed a rapid RCT which found that SMSs did not significantly increase COVID-safe behaviors at the tail end of wave 1 of the pandemic (August 2020)

    • Continuing to experiment with iterations of our immunization ambassador nomination and recruitment processes to increase efficiency and impact

    • Conducted field visits with parents, ambassadors, and government workers (ANMs, ASHAs) in Bihar to better understand how our programs can integrate within existing systems to meet genuine needs

    • Launched implementation of a pilot study in Maharashtra, led by Dr. Sebastian Bauhoff, Assistant Professor of Global Health and Economics at Harvard, and supported by the J-PAL CaTCH initiative, investigating the feasibility of conducting a future RCT in collaboration with the Maharashtra State Family Welfare Bureau

  • Incubations and funders

ROOM FOR MORE FUNDING FOR 2022: 

  • $365,000