Innovations Competition Accepting Entries until the End of this Week

For more information, please contact:
Joseph Scott
Office: +265 (0) 1 776811 | Mobile: +265 (0) 99 913 4949
Email: joseph.scott@concern.net

Innovations Competition Accepting Entries until the End of this Week
Huge Response Exceeds Capacity of Phone Lines: Competition Urges Malawians to Submit Ideas via Email & Website

(Lilongwe, Nov. 17th 2009) On the 30th of October 2009, Concern Worldwide launched a competition to invite Malawians to share their ideas for how to overcome a significant barrier to getting maternal, newborn and child health care to the mothers and children who need it most. This is the first competition of its kind in Malawi that offers people from all communities and walks of life a unique opportunity to share their ideas.

Huge Response, but Ideas Still Welcome: How to Submit Entries
“The interest in the competition has been unexpectedly large—in fact, the volume of calls has exceeded the capacity of operators and phone lines.” Steven Zarnfaller, manager of the Concern Malawi Innovations for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health Initiative, says, “We are thrilled and we want all Malawians to know that we still welcome your ideas. We urge you to submit your ideas via email at innovations.malawi@concern.net or via the Innovations competition website www.imnch.org/Malawi, as our phone lines have been literally unable to keep up with the huge volume of calls.” If you are based in Lilongwe, call into our Innovations for Maternal Newborn and Child Health office in the West Wing, Arwa House, Capital City to collect an entry form.

The competition aims to find ideas for eliminating a barrier that stands in the way of improving the quality of health services in Malawi. While free health services are available throughout Malawi, many families, particularly pregnant women, women in labour, and those with sick children, are unwilling to use them.

A key barrier is that some families feel they do not receive the quality of healthcare services they expect. Some people worry about the quality of care they will receive or they are unwilling to use health care services because of negative past experiences.

The Innovations Competition runs until November 20, 2009.

The judges will be looking for bold ideas that have not been tried before, and the winning ideas will be those they believe will have the most impact on reducing the number of deaths of Malawi’s mothers and children.

To enter the competition, candidates are invited to submit their ideas via the Innovations website at www.imnch.org/Malawi or via email at innovations.malawi@concern.net. All submissions must be received by 20 November.

For more information, or to request an interview with Country Director A.K.M. Musha and/or Innovations Country Manager Steven Zarnfaller please contact:

Joseph Scott, Communications Officer
Office: +265 (0) 1 776811 | Mobile: +265 (0) 99 913 4949
Email: joseph.scott@concern.net