Dr. Adereni Abiodun is the founder of HelpMum, a tech startup focused mainly on providing safe birth kits and immunisation tracking for mothers in rural and semi-urban areas.
He studied Veterinary medicine at the University of Ibadan and is passionate about reducing the rate of maternal and infant mortality in Africa caused by the gap in healthcare infrastructure and qualified medical personnel.
In this interview with Nairametrics, he speaks on how he was able to raise funds through grants for the HelpMum.
Enjoy the conversation.
NAIRAMETRICS: How did the vision for HelpMum come about?
Dr Adereni Abiodun: I was at the University of Ibadan studying Veterinary Science. It was during my studies that I came across a subject where I learnt that the unborn babies of pregnant mothers could develop a congenital infection if they are near an infected animal.
I also noticed that the people in the urban areas are unaware of this and talk less of those in the rural areas. So when I and some friends went to the rural areas to provide sensitisation and free medical services, we noticed their problems were in-depth.
As expected, those in rural areas do not have proper health care, healthcare personnel, or access to healthcare services. This leaves them to give birth to their babies in the homes of traditional birth using unsanitary methods.
After a few healthcare outreaches, it had to be structured as a social enterprise to empower people, make an impact and yet be profitable. This is what led to the creation of the HelpMum clean birth kit.
The kit has essential medical tools and sanitary products, which allows mothers to have a safe birth without a hospital, health centres, or trained medical personnel in a community
NAIRAMETRICS: Besides providing safe birth kits, HelpMum also has other products that are spin-offs from the original idea. Can you briefly talk about how that came about?
Dr Adereni Abiodun: We also noticed that even if mothers have a safe birth and don’t take their babies for immunization, they are likely going to come down with whooping cough, polio, and other vaccine-related diseases. So, to sensitize mothers on the importance of taking their babies for vaccination, our team developed a HelpMum Vaccination tracker that helps remind nursing mothers to present their children for immunization at the right time and place.
Another idea came up: the HelpMum E-learning platform, which is used to train community health workers on healthy and safe birth. Over 3000 community health workers have been trained in over 6-7 states.
We also came up with HelpMum Research, which is the innovation hub for maternal and infant healthcare in Africa, as a lot of data has been collected by HelpMum, which can be used to design new innovations in the maternal and infant healthcare space. An innovation came out recently from HelpMum Research called Adviser, developed in collaboration with Google Research and Vanderbilt University. This innovation would be very useful for healthcare agencies worldwide for pandemic preparedness.
NAIRAMETRICS: You have raised a lot of money over the years for HelpMum. How were you able to achieve that?
Dr Adereni Abiodun: So far, we have raised close to one million dollars in total. The first funding was at a competition in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2017 for healthcare innovators across Africa. Among 15 innovations, our team won $5000 among three winners. Then the same month, we won $5000 from Tony Elumelu Foundation.
In 2018, Google came with the Google Impact Challenge, and the prize was $250,000 for four social enterprises and $125,000 for 8 social enterprises. We applied and got to the final stage of the pitch and were one of the prize money winners of 250,000 dollars. We won another award from the United Nations in 2018 which came with some funding.
In 2020, Facebook came up with the Facebook Community Accelerator Program 2020, where our team won $30,000. An additional $25,000 was won in 2021 by Facebook, making it a total of $55,000. Not stopping there, in 2022, we got $250,000 from a global philanthropic organisation from Boston USA –Patrick JMC Foundation.
We have also raised undisclosed funding from philanthropic organization that would prefer to anonymous
Nairametrics: What stood your business idea out and impressed these donors?
Dr Adereni Abiodun We have been successful in raising funds from various reputable organizations, and this is because of the great work and evident impact of our work at HelpMum.
Upon receiving any grant, we take full responsibility to ensure that we share a regular update with our donors and funders. A YouTube channel was also put in place to showcase the impact of our work which also help funders to find us.
We are also very innovative in the approach we are using in solving the problem of maternal and infant mortality, which gets donors excited to support our work.
Nairametrics: Where do you see HelpMum in the future?
Dr Adereni Abiodun: I see HelpMum as the innovation hub for maternal and infant healthcare in Africa in the nearest future
I see HelpMum as the innovation hub for maternal and infant healthcare in Africa in the nearest future
The grant money funding we have raised so far will continue to help us scale our work at HelpMum. HelpMum is focused on Innovation, constant improvement, and relevant product creation.
There are also plans for the HelpMum E-learning content to be scaled to include more languages like Igbo and Hausa languages asides from Yoruba so that more community health workers in those regions will be able to use it and save more lives. What is important is building a sustainable business with evident social impact, and that’s the philosophy we abide by and run with at HelpMum.