Association Pesinet is a French NGO, founded in late 2007, that leverages ICT and mobile agents to improve detection and early treatment of childhood diseases in Mali. The service combines frequent monitoring of simple health indicators with an affordable insurance system and education on preventive health practices.
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History
Pesinet was founded in 2007 and launched activities in Mali in 2009, after a formal agreement was signed between Pesinet and Mali’s Health Ministry for the implementation and evaluation of the pilot site.
The first program was launched in January 2010 during an official ceremony attended by the Health Minister. It covers the neighbourhoods of Bamako Coura and Bamako Coura Bolibana.
In 2011, and at the request of the two community health centers in Dravela and Ouolofobougou, two neighboring districts of Bamako Coura, Pesinet began to work on the extension of its activities in these two areas. The launch of the two new programs was made official during a ceremony that took place in October 2011, during which the partnership agreement with the community health centers was officially signed.
Mission and Founding Principles
The mission of Association Pesinet is to sustainably reduce infant and child mortality by facilitating access of populations to existing healthcare systems. In partnership with local health centers, Pesinet designs and deploys home-based health monitoring services for children and mothers.
Pesinet’s action is motivated by the following facts:
The founding principles of the organization are:
How the service works
The service is based on the voluntary enrollment of families and costs 500 FCFA/child per month, or less than 1 euro. For this price, families are entitled to regular home visit by the health agents as well as free doctor consultations and 50% reduction on medications. Pesinet agents visit families several times each month to examine children, collect key data (weight, cough, fever, diarrhea…) and enter it in an application on a mobile phone. The data collected by the agents is transmitted in real time to a database accessible by the doctors at the closest health center. Doctors at the health center read that data and summon children at risk through the responsible health agent. A survey of families enrolled in the program found that 94% of subscribers were satisfied with the service and 97% of them found it affordable.