Mobile Top-Up Company Promotes Family Planning With Free Minutes

Ding, a mobile top-up company,  partnered with Haiti Projects, a nonprofit organization working in rural Haiti to lower the rate of unplanned pregnancies in the region. The partnership incentivized women to keep their contraceptive appointments, where they are given Depo Provera,  a three-month contraceptive shot. In exchange for keeping their appointments, the women are given free mobile minutes. 

“A major barrier we face is getting the women to keep their appointments after the first three month shot wears off,” CEO Cherie Miot Abbanat said. “By giving the women free top-up as incentive to keep their appointments we hope to see more women coming to the clinic ultimately lowering the unplanned birthrate in the region.”

Ninety percent of all unplanned pregnancies occur in developing nations. For Haitians unplanned births can have devastating effects on the mother and child, bringing them further into the depths of poverty. For the small island nation, a high volume of birthrates mean more pressure on already underfunded hospitals, leading to an increased risk of complications during birth.

“Not only does the top-up give incentives for these women to get their contraceptive shot, but mobile credit is also an incredibly powerful commodity,”Project Coordinator Ciara McDevitt, said.

“A working mobile phone in Haiti is an empowering tool that allows people communicate and gives them online access through data.”

This partnership is the newest project in Ding’s Top-up for Good programme, which launched at the beginning of 2015. The company’s CSR initiative uses Ding’s global reach, of 4 billion phones, to provide top-up to some of the most impoverished nations in the world.