Our model saves the lives of children with acute malnutrition.
Taimaka’s mission is to do the most good per dollar possible.
Because malnutrition is so deadly for children and our model is so cheap, it’s the best bang for your buck in terms of impact.
Why childhood
malnutrition?
Acute malnutrition is the world’s deadliest disease for children.
Every year, 3.1 million children die from acute malnutrition globally. Those that survive suffer from life-long setbacks to their immune systems, neurodevelopment, and educational potential.
The worst part is –
treatment is effective, but too expensive.
Over 20 years ago, public health experts developed an effective model for treating childhood malnutrition. The problem is – it’s far too expensive. These options rely on nurses and doctors who are often located in facilities far from the communities who need them most.
The clinically complexities and high costs ($251+ per child) of these legacy treatment options mean that more than 75% of children go untreated.
Our model makes treatment more cost-effective and scalable.
We leverage community health workers (CHWs), whom we support with a digital guide, and cutting edge public health research to reduce the costs of treatment by over 50%.
We’ve proven our model by treating thousands of children in healthcare facilities across Gombe State, Nigeria in partnership with the state government. While maintaining our low costs, we achieve a world-class recovery rate of 95%+.
How It Works
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Community Mobilizers Screen for Cases
We treat children as close to their communities as possible, cutting down on transportation costs and travel time.
Our community mobilizers screen for cases by wrapping a ‘MUAC tape’ around a child’s middle-upper arm. Children in the red zone have severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and are immediately referred to Taimaka’s nutrition clinics for care. Our clinics are located in existing government healthcare facilities in the most vulnerable communities.
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Community Health Workers Treat Uncomplicated Cases
Taimaka works through community health workers (CHWs) in primary healthcare centers, rather than relying on nurses and doctors in hospitals. We provide these CHWs with a simple digital triage tool that allows them to maintain world-class quality of care.
CHWs administer medications (e.g., deworming, antibiotics), immunizations, and ready-to-use-therapeutic food (RUTF). We use the novel OptiMA protocol to reduce our RUTF costs.
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Doctors and Nurses Treat Complicated Cases
Some children have complications in addition to their malnutrition like severe malaria or a life-threatening infection. We refer cases like these to the closest government hospital, which we partner with.
We train and provide stipends to existing government nurses and doctors to stabilize these children. After stabilization, children return to outpatient (primary healthcare) centers for further care by our CHWs. We run all of our facilities in coordination with a state government.
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Children are Discharged When Clinically Healthy
CHWs assess children at weekly visits by measuring their height, weight, mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC), and any complications (e.g., malaria). After ~6-10 weeks, children recover when they have regained a critical amount of body mass and have no other complications (e.g., malaria, tuberculosis, or other diseases).
While some children will not recover (e.g., die due to their illness, or drop out of the program), 95% of children in Taimaka’s program fully recover.
We know that it works. Check out our live data to see for yourself.
Our digital triage tools not only ensure quality of care – they allow us to capture real-time information about every child in our program. We leverage this data to continuously improve our program in search of even greater cost-effectiveness.
Explore Patient Journeys
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Giden was quickly enrolled in our nutrition program because of his low weight (for his height) and low mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC).
When our CHWs routinely took his temperature, they discovered a fever and tested him for malaria, which turned out positive. Because he didn't have any symptoms of complicated malaria, our CHWs were able to prescribe him anti-malarial medication (ACTs) and send him home, without hospitalization.
Gideon's malaria resolved at home with treatment and he returned for six weekly visits until his MUAC and weight returned to healthy measurements.
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Hadiza arrived at one of Taimaka's nutrition clinics dangerously underweight and suffering from intractable vomiting.
Our community health workers (CHWs) instantly realized that she needed emergency treatment and helped Hadiza and her mother transfer to one of our hospital wards, which we co-manage with the Gombe State Government.
A little over a week later, Hadiza was discharged from the hospital as stabilized. She returned to our nutrition clinic, where she attended nine weekly visits until she gained over 2kg - returning her to a healthy weight.
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Abubakar was 17 months old when his mother brought him into our clinic in Deba, Gombe. We immediately admitted Abubakar for very low weight for his height (WFH). He weighed just 6.6kg, when a normal child of his height should have weighed 9kg.
In addition to malnutrition, Abubakar had an ear and eye infection. One of Taimaka's community health workers (CHWs) prescribed him a routine antibiotic, as well as two specialized medications to treat his infections.
Over the next 7 visits, Abubakar gained 2.6kg and his infection resolved, allowing us to discharge him as recovered.
Note: Patient names and ID’s are changed to protect patient privacy, but the health information matches a real child in Taimaka’s program.