Cordeiro Vera R. G.
Organization: Associação Saúde Criança
Year Founded: 1991
Country: Brazil
Website: www.criancarenascer.org.br
Geographic Area of Impact: Brazil.
Model: Hybrid Non-Profit
Focus: Children and Youth,Health.
Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum The Innovation The Association Saúde Criança supplements hospital care for children from low-income communities in order to reduce the effects of poverty, which contribute to repeat illness. To do so, its network of volunteers provides post-hospitalization assistance to the families of poor children recently discharged from hospital. At Hospital da Lagoa — a large public hospital in Rio de Janeiro where the flagship Saúde Criança is based — pediatric re-admissions have dropped by 68 % in 2007 as a result of Renascer's efforts. The Saúde Criança model has proven to be easily transferable and ideal for locations in which disease is exacerbated by socio-economic factors. It has spread not to replace the government but as a complementary work near 23 hospitals in Brazil and served 26,000 people to date. Background According to the United Nation Development Programme, Brazil has the highest inequality rates in the world in terms of income distribution, both between regions as well as social strata. As a consequence, health and sanitary conditions vary widely. While Brazil offers a public health care system, its coverage is not extensive. State-of-the-art facilities are available for those who can afford them. For the 60% of the population using public health care, though, service is limited to basic immunization and emergency care. Even if Brazil were to uniformly offer high quality health services to all, it could not address the health challenges presented by poverty. Most diseases are caused by unclean drinking water, inadequate sewage disposal, poor housing conditions and malnutrition. Renascer set out to tackle the multifaceted factors related to poverty that make children sick. Renascer is inspiring the government of Sao Paulo in order to replicate the model near each public hospital there. In the city of Belo Horizonte (state of Minas Gerais), Renascer is already a public police in one of the poorest areas called Jardim Felicidade). Strategy Renascer's model enables low-income mothers and families to prevent recurring illness in their children. Each Saúde Criança unit is connected to a public hospital and staffed by volunteers, social workers, psychologists, nutritionists, lawyers among others. The staff provides intensive one-on-one health monitoring and assistance to families, most of which are single-mother households with a family income around US$ 180 per month. Saúde Criança works with families on average for eighteen to twenty-four months, providing customized assistance such as nutrition advice, provision of medicines, psychological counselling, vocational training and housing improvements to ensure adequate living conditions. Saúde Criança has teamed up with management consulting firm McKinsey & Company to refine its management systems and prepare to scale up. In 2001, a group of US-based supporters launched "Friends of Saúde Criança" in New York City to disseminate the model around the world. The association's success has also been publicly recognized through several awards from numerous institutions. Importantly, in January 2003, Saúde Criança was selected from among 400 institutions worldwide as the first place winner of the prestigious Global Development Network Award for the Most Innovative NGO 2002 and in 2006 was recognized by the Skoll Foundation. The Saúde Criança´s data base is an essential instrument of organization, planning and measurement of the impact of the program. The system records quantitative and qualitative indicators that make possible the constant reflection of work progress and the creation of more consistent results reports. The results of this measurement have revealed that Renascer’s efforts have enabled the following: Reduction of Hospital Costs: US$1,005.550.00; Increase of 44% on family income; Improvement of children´s health: The study showed that before Saúde Criança, 29% of the children were in good health, 31% in regular health, and 32% in severe health. After being assisted by the organization, the numbers changed to 46% in good health, 34% in satisfactory health, and only 8% in severe health. Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize, said "Saúde Criança Renascer has created a powerful methodology of social inclusion for the very poor”. The Entrepreneur As a physician working in the pediatric department of one of Rio de Janeiro's largest hospitals, Vera Cordeiro was shocked by the number of children from favelas (urban slums) who repeatedly had to be admitted to the hospital. "I could not stand to go one more day seeing children locked in this cycle of hospitalization, re-hospitalization and death," Cordeiro said. Realizing that their health problems were caused or exacerbated by social conditions, she founded Renascer to "connect the hospital to the home" and provide a real treatment that takes into account the full range of economic and social causes of illness. Vera Cordeiro is also an Ashoka fellow, Avina leader, Skoll Foundation social entrepreneur, and a member of the Director's Council of PATH: A catalyst for global health.
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