Comitê Internacional de Resgate (IRC)

The Challenge

In the hyper-dense informal settlements of Mogadishu, people live in a sprawling landscape devoid of street names or house numbers. This lack of administrative infrastructure created a critical barrier to healthcare, as providers found it nearly impossible to locate specific tents for essential follow-up appointments. Without a verifiable way to navigate these crowded camps, finding a patient in this "sea of thousands" was equivalent to searching for a needle in a haystack, resulting in immunization coverage remaining dangerously low, with thousands of children vulnerable to preventable diseases.

The Solution & Implementation

Partnership: International Rescue Committee (IRC).

The Process

• Digital Registration: Health workers used a tracing app to capture GPS coordinates for every mother and child, which were then automatically converted into short, shareable Plus Codes.

• Offline Accessibility: For workers without smartphones, the project generated paper maps using Plus Codes to help them navigate the settlements and locate "defaulter" families.

• Community Outreach: Monthly outreach activities were conducted to explain the system to mothers, ensuring they understood that their Plus Code was their "key" to consistent healthcare.

The Impact

• Healthcare Success: The system enabled workers to identify and vaccinate approximately 88% of children who had missed their initial appointments.

• Maternal Health: Hundreds of mothers were able to successfully adopt family planning methods because nurses could reliably find them for follow-up consultations.

• Precision Referrals: Plus Codes replaced lengthy, error-prone GPS coordinates, making it simple for field teams to refer patients between different health facilities.

Resources