Funding Type
Charitable Grant
Funding Criteria
Catalytic
Discrete
Mid-Implementation
Unexpected
Region
South Asia
Topic
Acts of God/Economics
COVID-19

The Situation

Noora Health works to improve outcomes and save lives of at-risk patients by empowering family caregivers with the skills they need to care for their loved ones. For countless families across low-resource settings, preventable health complications and deaths occur due to lack of knowledge and inadequate resources. Noora Health challenges the status quo of healthcare delivery and addresses the shortage of human resources in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) through its innovative Care Companion Program (CCP), which places families at the center of care. The CCP trains hospital staff in public healthcare facilities to deliver succinct and relevant health information to families in group settings during their hospital stay, where evidence suggests families are primed to receive and initiate health behavior change. 

Noora's CCP is currently being implemented across more than 150 government hospitals in six Indian states (Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh) and large private sector hospital chains like Narayana Health; it is also being piloted with the government of Bangladesh. To date, Noora has trained over 600,000 patients and family members across 159 facilities.

The Roadblock

In light of COVID-19, already overstretched and under-resourced public healthcare systems in India and Bangladesh are bracing to serve the demands of this at-risk population. Field health workers are overburdened. Families are turning to social media for guidance but can’t find accurate and clear information due to competing and often inaccurate messaging. When the pandemic hit, Noora began directing their efforts to help flatten the curve by using their proven experience in driving changes in behavior through directed communications. Noora’s primary goal was to get high-quality, accurate information to as many at-risk patients/families as quickly as possible, to support frontline healthcare workers and the health systems in which they function, and to help people understand when to seek treatment for COVID-19.

Open Road's Response

A charitable grant of $100,000 from ORA helped Noora increase the total reach of its efforts by expanding its teletraining; Noora also partnered with various NGOs and government channels to develop and deploy cutting-edge culturally and contextually relevant content. This life-saving information and training is now being disseminated across 689 public health facilities in Bangladesh and 150+ public health facilities across India. 

To learn more visit: noorahealth.org

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