We're grateful for hmore to publish an interview with us in their latest magazine issue "Pioneering Entrepreneurship" or in Dutch "Tegendraads Ondernemen".

Would you rather read it in Dutch? Visit Hmore magazine here. We have translated the original article in English: 

Improving healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa with a social heart

Sometimes as a Hmore founder you come across unique social projects that deserve extra attention. Mieke Millenaar of the Millenaar Advies Groep recently felt this enthusiastic connection towards the Dutch-Kenyan company CarePay, and its social counterpart carepay.social.

In an interview with Féline Welmers, who is in charge of marketing at CarePay, Mieke Millenaar discovered how the Haarlemmermeer business community can contribute to improving healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa in a responsible and healthy manner through carepay.social.

Introduction

• social is a CarePay initiative that enables anyone worldwide to contribute to a social cause.
• For-profit CarePay and non-profit CarePay Foundation ensure that donors can see their impact through a personal connection and be reassured that their money is going to a good place.
• CarePay is a social enterprise which aims to give as many people as possible access to healthcare through its digital healthcare platform.
• CarePay Foundation was established to collect, manage and distribute the carepay.social funds. The foundation has ANBI status and at least half of its directors are independent of CarePay. The foundation has no employees, all operational activities are done by CarePay employees and technology.
• Donations enable pregnant women in Kenya to get the healthcare they need, through our partner programme MomCare. At least 87% of the money is available for this care. CarePay earns about 10% for using its platform, which digitally connects mothers and clinics, assessing and disbursing care claims, raising funds and providing feedback to each donor. The rest goes towards transaction costs.

Digital technology improves healthcare efficiency Sub-Saharan Africa

When Mieke Millenaar asked how CarePay contributes to improving medical care, Féline replied: 'our Dutch-Kenyan software company CarePay was founded in 2015 and is a for-profit social enterprise. We are digitising the healthcare system in Sub-Saharan Africa through mobile technology. We are the digital link between healthcare payers, providers, and users, as our platform covers the healthcare process from start to finish. Before, the processes were mostly manual, but now all transactions and information flows in real-time through the cloud. Hospitals are paid faster, better rates are possible, and the high level of transparency enhances trust. Additionally, every connected person has full insight into their treatment, costs and insurance.’ 

And what is the function of carepay.social?

'In 2022, a team of young CarePay employees founded carepay.social,' explains Féline. 'The aim of carepay.social is to give everyone the opportunity to create and experience social impact through our partner program MomCare. Our users range from individuals to Dutch employers. Every user receives personalised, digital social impact reports, so they can see exactly how they are making a difference. You can contribute to carepay.social directly as an individual or through one of our corporate-sponsored initiatives,' says Feline.

In what way is carepay.social helping pregnant women in Kenya?

 'carepay.social ensures that at least 87% of the donations are made available to pregnant women through partner programme MomCare, which is run on the CarePay platform in Kenya. MomCare guides and supports expectant mothers during their pregnancies in Kenya. The MomCare programme provides mothers with access to all necessary maternity care, such as check-ups and unexpected pregnancy-related costs including c-sections. Donations are collected in one pot and paid to the clinics when they have treated a mother. CarePay's process, similar to that of a health insurance company, ensures that each care claim is checked and confirmed digitally by a claims manager and the treating doctor. MomCare keeps mothers informed about their scheduled appointments and is always available for questions about their pregnancy, which are answered by qualified professionals via mobile phone. To date, MomCare has covered the pregnancy care of more than 28,000 mothers in Kenya,' Féline enthusiastically explains.

Role Haarlemmermeer entrepreneur

Feline on this: 'Consumers and employees increasingly expect companies to commit to making the world a little better. This is where carepay.social can be a good partner. With carepay.social, we want to enable companies to easily make direct, efficient and transparent social impact in an innovative way while also giving a positive experience to their employees and stakeholders. We offer a variety of social impact such as #freshparent when employees become fathers or mothers, #christmasgift if you want to do something good for Christmas or #moveforher to encourage your employees to exercise more.This allows employees and companies to efficiently raise money to directly cover the cost of maternity care in Kenya. In doing so, carepay.social connects the company, employees, and individual donors directly with Kenyan mothers expecting a baby. To make the impact transparent and approachable, each stakeholder receives personalised, digital social impact reports. As a company, you then know exactly how many Kenyan expectant mothers you have helped and what the euro is spent on. Of course, we protect the mothers' privacy and these reports comply with GDPR requirements'.

Can all employers join carepay.social?

'Yes indeed,' confirms Féline. 'So you can sponsor a donation amount or do the #moveforher challenge together with your employees! With the #moveforher challenge, you increase the health of your employees. Young professionals are often looking for "purpose" and this is how you emphasise impact and mental health. It's a win-win situation'.

And what does participating in such a challenge look like?

'As an employer, you determine the maximum amount your employees can raise by running. You then make this amount available for the challenge. For example, your employees earn €1 per km run and complete bonus challenges that allow them to collect extra money. Co-workers receive personal updates in their e-mail. They can see exactly how they are performing by seeing how many kilometres they run and how many mothers they have helped. Super motivating! To make sure employees encourage each other, they get to see a ranking of how they perform compared to the rest. We prepare everything. No fuss. And you have a happy team'!

Spending money in Kenya

'One in 185 women in Sub-Saharan Africa dies during pregnancy,' Féline continued. 'By comparison, that's 1 in 13,000 women in high-income countries. Many of these deaths are linked to preventable birth complications. If risks of birth complications are detected early in pregnancy through regular doctor's checks, they can be prevented cost-effectively. For example, if a pregnant mother discovers during her check-ups that she is HIV-positive, transmission to the newborn baby can be prevented relatively easily. However, if the pregnant mother skips the check-ups from a financial perspective, the newborn will have to live with HIV, resulting in the additional burden of expensive treatment costs.

Want to know more or already know you want to contribute? Find more information on https://carepay.social or email europe@carepay.com.