Thinking outside the Box to improve Immunisation : How we’re using Google Calendar

At Motherhood NG Initiative, we believe in asking tough questions and finding simple solutions that work.

For years, through our Project Safe Birth, we’ve worked in communities across Nigeria to help mothers give birth safely. But one challenge kept returning: too many babies miss life-saving immunisations.

According to UNICEF and WHO’s latest 2023 data, Nigeria has over 2.2 million children who are un- or under-immunised, the highest number in the world. These missed vaccines mean preventable diseases, higher infant deaths, and avoidable heartbreak for mothers who have already risked so much to bring life into the world.

So, we asked ourselves; Do we need another complicated new app?

The answer was clear: No.

Sometimes the solution is right in our pockets; we do not need to travel far.

Instead of building a brand-new app, we thought outside the box.

Millions of people already have Google Calendar on their phones; they just don’t know how to use it for health reminders. So, we designed an outreach to teach Community Birth Attendants, the trusted hands helping women give birth, how to use Google Calendar as an Immunisation Reminder Tool.

On July 15th, 2025, we launched our first Train-the-Trainer workshop in Igandn Community, Lagos. We gathered 30 Faith-Based Birth Attendants, many of whom already had the Google Calendar app installed but had never opened it. Some didn’t even realise its power.

We taught them step by step, in English and their local languages, how to create a simple immunisation schedule, set reminders, and guide mothers to do the same. By the end, each attendant demonstrated their new skill, showing how they’ll pass it on to the mothers they serve every day.

Why does this matter? Because in Nigeria, 1 in 5 children don’t receive their routine vaccinations on time (National Immunisation Coverage Survey, 2021). But with a simple digital nudge, delivered by a trusted community hand, we can close that gap.

At Motherhood NG Initiative, this is what we do: we meet real needs with real solutions. Project Safe Birth didn’t stop at delivery kits; it grows with the mothers and babies we serve.

Our hope is simple: that a free tool already trusted by millions can help keep our babies alive and healthy, one calendar reminder at a time.

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