By Sarah Meyanathan and Olinda Baptista, HAI staff

The Liga Inan hotline was launched in February 2016 and provides remote support to health providers. Designed by Catalpa International and staffed by HAI, the hotline focuses on basic trouble shooting and monitors program performance.

The Liga Inan program uses mobile technology to strengthen communication between health providers and pregnant women. Women are enrolled into the program at their first antenatal care visit and begin receiving twice weekly text messages. Liga Inan also facilitates two-way communication between health staff and pregnant women.

Each week, the hotline handles a volume of 90 calls from health providers across five municipalities. Providers call about various issues such as problems registering a mother into the program, if they are out of phone credit or problems with the phone (e.g. phone not charging).

“I like working with the Liga Inan hotline because we can respond to health provider concerns quickly and let them get back to their important work. This is much faster than going out and doing a field visit. It’s great that providers feel comfortable calling the hotline and if we can’t resolve their problem on the call, we notify them once it has been fixed “, said Juliao Soares, hotline staff.

HAI still carries out field support visits when necessary as face to face connections are still important to relationships between providers and program staff, but the majority of smaller technical issues are now resolved by a simple phone call.