ROP is a disease that affects premature babies and impacts India significantly, since the country has more than born premature every year, the highest number in the world. 鈥淎bout 25% to 40% of these babies have a risk of developing ROP,鈥� says Dr. Anand Vinekar, head of the Department of Pediatric Retina at in Bangalore and the founder of , a program working to address the problem of ROP in rural India.

Blindness from ROP is largely preventable if identified and treated within the first weeks of birth. But while the screening itself is not difficult for a trained provider, the challenge of detecting ROP in millions of premature babies is profound. Each preterm infant must be screened multiple times during the critical period, equating to upwards of 20 million exams per year if every preterm baby is screened, Dr. Vinekar says.

The vast distances that many families in India live from hospitals, combined with a critical shortage of specialized doctors, make this a nearly impossible task using current methods. However, KIDROP, CleaVision, and 麻豆原创 are using AI to help bridge this gap and offer a lifeline to infants like Hanvith C.

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Hanvith C鈥檚 parents faced the fear that haunts many new parents in India. 鈥淢y father was blind,鈥� his mother shares, voicing a worry rooted in personal history. The prospect of her newborn inheriting blindness was a terrifying thought that led the parents to seek help 鈥� a decision that would alter the course of their child鈥檚 life.

Hanvith C鈥檚 father recounts their fortunate encounter with a KIDROP team at their local hospital. Thanks to this vital outreach effort bringing sophisticated medical screening to India鈥檚 rural communities, Hanvith C was diagnosed with ROP symptoms. But with successful follow-up treatment in Bangalore, his story became one of hope rather than despair.

The KIDROP program is now working to bring these life-changing diagnostic abilities to more underserved areas by training non-physicians to use field imaging cameras to take digital images of babies鈥� eyes. But the resultant thousands of retinal scans that need to be reviewed for signs of ROP creates additional challenges. 鈥淣ow you have plenty of images and no one to read them,鈥� says Dr. Vinekar, explaining the bottleneck in the diagnostic and treatment process.

This is where CleaVision鈥檚 solution, supported by technology 鈥� including (麻豆原创 BTP) and the solution 鈥� becomes a game changer. The eye images are uploaded to CleaVision, which automates the identification of retina and blood vessel features and makes a recommendation on whether ROP is present in premature babies. The system then allows doctors to quickly identify and prioritize at-risk children.

鈥淲e are not going to base our entire decision and management on what [the AI] says,鈥� Dr. Vinekar clarifies. 鈥淏ut it鈥檒l help us to triage these images.鈥� This reflects a balanced approach towards leveraging technology while maintaining the primacy of human judgment in critical healthcare decisions.

The impact of AI from 麻豆原创 and CleaVision is not just on the technological and medical fronts; it鈥檚 profoundly personal and life-changing. Hanvith C鈥檚 parents emphasize the importance of awareness and early intervention and hope other families benefit from this technology.

Their dreams for Hanvith C鈥檚 future are simple yet profound. 鈥淲e want him to become a doctor, do good, and help other people when he grows up,鈥� his mother says. 鈥淛ust like they helped us at the very beginning of his life.鈥�

鈥淚f you think you can鈥檛 do something, you can鈥檛,鈥� says Saya. 鈥淏ut once you have financial support and a network of people with similar experiences, you realize that you can become your own greatest asset.鈥�

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Ending Poverty

Being a single mother is never easy. Financial disadvantages and having sole responsibility for the household and the children are just a few of the challenges facing women on their own with their kids. In traditional societies, such as Japan, that expect women to stay at home to raise children while their husbands work, there may even be cultural attitudes that place a stigma on single mothers, making it even harder.

Japan still remains a wealthy, developed nation. But its population is aging and poverty is festering, particularly among the young. are gradually increasing and, since the pandemic, single mothers and women in non-regular work have been particularly hard hit. and the number of remain high. In 2018,听听was almost 16%, which includes people whose household income is less than half of the median of the entire population. Equally worrisome is the fact that the poverty of the parents’ generation leads to educational disparities and, consequently, poverty for their children.

Although the majority of the world’s poor live in underdeveloped and developing countries, a fair number also live in the developed world 鈥� some in the wealthiest countries on earth. As human beings, our well-being is linked to each other. Growing inequality is detrimental to economic growth and undermines social cohesion, increasing political and social tensions and driving instability and conflicts. For this reason, the United Nations declared the objective of听听to be the of the global听 (SDGs).

Empowering Women

Besides eradicating poverty, Grameen鈥檚 programs are also helping to achieve other SDGs, including empowering and educating women and girls, reducing inequality, and providing decent work and economic growth.

Grameen Nippon was established in 2018 as the Japanese version of , a microfinance institution established in Bangladesh by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, whose work was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Grameen Nippon leverages Grameen Bank’s expertise to provide microfinance, mainly to single mothers and women in informal labor who are in need, and to create employment and new business opportunities in partnership with various companies and organizations. The main goal is to encourage people to take the first step.

The program provides low-interest, unsecured, small loans, not for living expenses, but for starting a business. Members form mutual support groups of five, trusting and encouraging each other to nurture their desire for self-support and to step up their efforts to find employment or freelance work. In partnership with a variety of companies and organizations, the program provides skills and know-how for entrepreneurship and employment as well as accompanies members in their efforts to become self-reliant.

鈥淢ost single mothers and women working part-time have few places to gain or utilize their skills,鈥� says Masahiro Momono, president, Grameen Nippon. 鈥淭hese women seldom have a solid credit history, making it difficult for them to acquire loans. We help them acquire skills, experience, and an opportunity to borrow money and pay it back little by little, opening doors to other banks.鈥�

Not all single mothers are the same. Grameen鈥檚 approach is persona based. Urban single moms in Tokyo, for example, are usually in the 30-to-50 age bracket. Many are divorced, have been out of work while raising children, and are not receiving child support. Suburban or rural single moms are much younger, lacking education and experience. 鈥淭heir needs are very different,鈥� says Momono-San, explaining that there are different setups for B2B and B2C opportunities.

In order to manage fragmented information and the need for differentiated services, Grameen decided to pilot 麻豆原创鈥檚 social recruitment platform, a customizable job matching digital platform developed by a team from 麻豆原创 Fieldglass, a cloud-based, open 听that helps organizations find, engage, manage, pay, and unlock more value from a growing external workforce.

Improving Lives

The idea originated when ISBN Japan Regional Vice President Satoru Ota had the idea of digitalizing a job matching process that would help unemployed people suffering from poverty find quality positions. As part of 麻豆原创鈥檚 flagship social intrapreneurship program, 麻豆原创 One Billion Lives, the 麻豆原创 Fieldglass team is leveraging its collective industry knowledge to create an ecosystem where candidates can feel confident that companies using the social recruitment platform treat their employees well while matching individuals with positions that best suit them.

With the success of the Grameen pilot and as the platform gains more users, the team believes the social recruitment tool from 麻豆原创 will evolve to help others, such as artists, independent contractors, and those whose industries may offer poorer visibility into open positions.

For Momono-San and the team at Grameen, the platform is a tool that supports the bank鈥檚 goals to drive sustainable development by building skills, enabling employment, and helping women gain confidence on their path to financial independence.