Friends,
Atma Connect just turned 6! On this milestone, here is a brief update on some of our initiatives to empower more neighbors to help neighbors.
New Directions
While Atma’s roots are in fostering disaster resilience, our impact and scope have grown substantially! Did you know:
1. We created, designed and launched the Community Impact Platform on AtmaGo, our award-winning mobile app, deployed for people in Indonesia and Puerto Rico. Civic organizations (for maternal care, the environment, improving literacy and much more) can build their impact on meeting their most important goals. This platform is winning raves, and we’re excited at the potential.
“This is a new pattern in the last 20 years, where governments and citizens collaborate with each other. With the number of users in the millions, AtmaGo can be a reliable source and it encourages the realization of evidence-based policy-making.”
Hans Antlov, FHI360 and Chief of Party of USAID MADANI Program.
2. Building on Community Spaces, the original version of the new platform, our tech team has created a vital customer service system known as the Complaint-Handling Mechanism for community health clinics in Indonesia. It’s an easy and reliable way for people to give feedback on the healthcare they’re receiving, and more clinics are requesting a rollout. Our team was gratified to spread the word (see the banner) and, even better, help bring about the following results from a pilot program:
- A clinic where motorcycles had overtaken the children’s area is now motorbike-free and available again for kids to play.
- More seating is now available for pregnant women so that they don’t have to stand while waiting for appointments.
- A citizen complaint about experiencing less than a stellar attitude by healthcare workers brought about a robust response – the clinic looked into the problem, found very overworked staff and reshaped work schedules so that workers can serve the public at a high level.
3. And that’s not all – in Puerto Rico with the partnership of Vodafone Americas Foundation and Love, Tito’s, we are growing our networks, training people in Citizen Journalism to improve their neighborhoods, and bringing people together, especially women, to build community and solve local problems, including food scarcity on the island.
4. Ukraine: As the world responds to the Ukrainian crisis, several individual donors of Atma have come together to support bringing AtmaGo to Ukrainian refugees. The goal, as always, is to empower the people most affected by the situation so they can rebuild and provide mutual support – helping with childcare, education, jobs, and services. Please join to support this effort.
5. Sharing knowledge: Several Atma team members are in Bali this week at #GP2022 (Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction), talking about resilience and sharing best practices in creating a highly regarded COVID-19 information site during the height of the global pandemic. We are very proud.
Thank you, as always, to our friends, supporters, and partners around the world. We could not do this crucial work without you.
All the best,
Meena Palaniappan
Atma Co-founder & CEO