SPOON is redesigning our digital health app, Count Me In. This new version, called Count Me In+, will allow SPOON to improve our support for children with disabilities and significantly increase the reach and impact of our programs.
An Essential Tool
Count Me In is SPOON’s digital health app. It supports users trained on our nutrition and feeding curriculum to screen for nutrition and feeding problems and support caregivers to nourish their children. It guides users to monitor the growth, feeding, and anemia levels of children and recommends specific interventions when problems are identified.
Since 2016, Count Me In has been translated into six languages, adopted in eight countries, and used to improve health outcomes for over 3,300 children. SPOON and our local partners use data collected by Count Me In to push for inclusive policies, services, and investments for the 250 million underserved children who need access to high-quality nutrition and feeding care.
The Next Phase
When SPOON launched Count Me In in 2016, it was designed primarily for children living in residential institutions, many of whom have disabilities. As we have grown, we have expanded into community settings where children with disabilities live with families. At community sites in the low- and middle-income countries where SPOON works, connectivity is a major barrier, app users are typically on phones, and there is a demand to screen children for developmental disabilities so they can be connected to appropriate services.
Count Me In+ will be the first redesign of our successful app since its launch. Count Me In+ will provide a mobile-first experience, offline functionality, and developmental screening capabilities. This improved version of our app will allow us to better meet the needs of children with disabilities, improving their health and chances of remaining in their families.
Unlocking our Impact
SPOON aims to use our app to assess and track the feeding and nutrition of 10,000 children. A robust and diverse dataset of this size will allow us to capture the attention of global decision-makers and amplify the impact of our direct programming.
Count Me In+ is essential to scaling our impact. This new and improved version of our app will allow us to reach entire communities of children that are currently off-limits to our interventions and more fully understand and inclusively meet their feeding and nutrition needs. By improving our ability to directly impact tens of thousands of children, Count Me In+ will unlock our ability to transform the health and well-being of hundreds of millions worldwide through our advocacy work.
