World Vision Receives $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations Grant for Innovative Global Health Research

Seattle, Wash., November 9, 2010 — World Vision announced today that it has received a US $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by World Vision, titled “Use of Mobile Phones for Improvement of Maternal and Newborn Care in High Risk Remote Areas.”

World Vision’s project is one of 65 grants announced by the Gates Foundation in the fifth funding round of Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to help scientists around the world explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve health in developing countries. The grants were provided to scientists in 16 countries on 5 continents.

To receive funding, World Vision showed in a two-page application how its idea falls outside current scientific paradigms and might lead to significant advances in global health. The initiative is highly competitive, receiving more than 2,400 proposals in this round.

World Vision’s study will assess the effectiveness of community health workers using mobile phone Pregnancy and Newborn Modules to manage routine care and potentially decrease maternal and newborn complications and deaths resulting from issues of timely information, care and access to services. The project will be implemented in the Zambezia province of central Mozambique, which has a high maternal and infant mortality rate due to remoteness of communities and lack of access to emergency care. The phones will prompt community health workers to assess, decide to take action, take simple action steps, and refer in response to health complications and emergencies.

“World Vision is excited to be given the opportunity by the Gates Foundation to test this new idea, which we expect will empower community health workers and save the lives of many newborns and their mothers in the targeted villages,” said Jed Hoffman, World Vision’s senior director for health program development.

“These are bold ideas from innovative thinkers, which is exactly what we need in global health research right now,” said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program. “I'm excited to see some of these daring projects develop into life-saving breakthroughs for those who need them the most.”

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation press release

About Grand Challenges Explorations:
Grand Challenges Explorations is a five-year, $100 million initiative of the Gates Foundation to promote innovation in global health. The program uses an agile, streamlined grant process – applications are limited to two pages, and preliminary data are not required. Proposals are reviewed and selected by a committee of foundation staff and external experts, and grant decisions are made within approximately three months of the close of the funding round.

The next round of Grand Challenges Explorations will open in March 2011. More information, including grant application instructions and a list of topics for which proposals will be accepted, will be available at www.grandchallenges.org/explorations.

About World Vision:
World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities worldwide to overcome poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. To learn more, visit www.worldvision.org.