HelpMum, a Nigerian healthtech startup, has been named winner of the 2021 Waislitz Global Citizen COVID–19 Response Award and would receive $50,000 for the win.
Founded in 2017 by Abiodun Adereni, HelpMum provides an e-learning platform that trains community birth attendants in their indigenous languages.
It also provides a vaccination tracking system where expectant mothers in targeted remote areas are registered to encourage immunisation for their babies.
The startup works to ensure safe and hygienic delivery among pregnant women in rural and underserved communities through the distribution of affordable birth kits including cleansed gloves, antiseptic soaps, sterilised delivery mats and maternity pads.
HelpMum has so far worked with over 20,000 pregnant women and nursing mothers as well as more than 500 healthcare workers.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the startup donated 10,000 face masks to pregnant women, nursing mothers as well as traditional birth attendants in rural health centres.
Commenting on the win, Abiodun said, “Winning this award will help us at HeloMum scale our solutions —especially those we developed during COVID, help accelerate the impact we’ve had so far, and save more lives in remote communities. We are extremely grateful for this support from Global Citizen, Waislitz Foundation, and Mesoblast.”
The Waislitz Global Citizen Awards are annual cash prizes distributing a total of $250,000 among the world’s changemakers, presented by the Melbourne-based Waislitz Foundation and Global Citizen, with additional support from Mesoblast. The prizes help individuals further implement their advocacy efforts to end extreme poverty.
The applicants were evaluated in five areas: global citizenship, proof of concept, disruption, scalability, and adaptability.
The other winners include Bina Shrestha’s Build Up Nepal, Tania Rosas’ Fundación el Origen (Origin Learning Fund) and Jimmy Pham’s Know One Teach One (KOTO).
