App with hands-on information on rehabilitation to fieldworkers in low-income countries

Solution: RehApp
Organization: Enablement B.V.
Country of Implementation: Netherlands
Region: Europe
Subregion: Western Europe
Start Year: 2017
First published: 13.01.2021

RehApp is a free app that supports fieldworkers in low-income countries to provide effective rehabilitation services to people with disabilities. The app provides specialist information and options for interventions developed by more than 70 disability experts. In 2020 there were 200 users.

A person with a tablet computer is explaining the RehApp to another person to his right. A group of six women sit on chairs in a circle. On a makeshift coffee table is a platter with a cake — A physiotherapist in Bahir-Dar, Ethiopia, introduces RehApp to a group of rehabilitation fieldworkers.

Solution details

People

Huib CORNIELJE Website

“RehApp helped me to be on top of my game when encountering questions in the field.” Andrew Maina, Occupational Therapist

Enablement B.V. is a Dutch non-profit company specializing in community-based rehabilitation. In 2017 it developed RehApp, a freely available mobile app that enhances the capacity of fieldworkers in low-income countries to offer effective rehabilitation services to persons with disabilities. The app provides information about disabilities and options for rehabilitation interventions, collaboratively developed by over 70 disability experts. In 2020 there are 345 active users of RehApp.

Problems Targeted

Fieldworkers often are very minimally trained and have limited access to practical information to carry out their work.

Solution, Innovation and Impact

RehApp was developed for use in low- and middle-income countries by rehabilitation fieldworkers with a limited educational background and little training. It contains chapters on a range of disabilities, such as cerebral palsy and leprosy. Each chapter provides information on possible causes, signs, and symptoms as well as practical intervention options at the personal, relational, and societal level. All chapters are also available in a flashcard format. RehApp is open source and thus can be downloaded for free and can be used offline. Consequently, fieldworkers always have relevant and practical information at hand, even in remote or rural settings with limited connectivity. The layout of the app follows the Digital Accessibility Toolkit developed by CBM, an international NGO, as well as other guidelines for inclusive apps. In 2017, Enablement B.V. started the app with a chapter on spinal cord injury, and has since been gradually adding more chapters and refining the content and design as it is field-tested. From 2018 to 2019 active users grew from 211 to 345.

Funding, Outlook and Transferability

RehApp is funded by 13 international NGOs, eleven of which are part of the International Disability and Development consortium, a group of civil society organizations promoting inclusive international development. Over the next years Enablement B.V. plans to add 15 new chapters, create a dedicated website, and make the app available in Amharic, Arabic, Burmese, Chinese, French, Khmer, Nepali, Portuguese, Tajik, and Vietnamese and more languages. The organization estimates that the app will be used by 25,000 fieldworkers in 50 low-income countries once it has been translated into local languages.