mobile

The Peeps Tweet #sango09
Day one of the Cape Town Social Media for NGOs has been tweeted and retweeted. Judging by the conference hashtag, it has been a day filled with ideas-sharing and project-showcasing.

It’s amazing how Twitter accurately captures the ideas – often in a succinct phrase – that have universal appeal. Take Marlon Parker’s discussion within the morning’s Mobile Society parallel session: it was highly anticipated with a number of people tweeting that they were looking forward to the “sex, drugs and mobile phones” presentation. This was certainly an attention-grabbing title for what was a compelling account of how the MXit platform is being leveraged for social good; in this case as a drug counselling resource.

A statistic that got the peeps tweeting and retweeting was from Voadafone’s Steve Wolak, who stated that “By 2011, 75% of the world’s population will own a mobile phone”. This figure really contextualised the significance of this year’s conference theme, and also gave meaning to the issue that was picked up by Jonathan Donner from Microsoft Research who stated that non profit organisations need to consider that they should be reaching their constituencies through mobile and make sure that their websites are mobile-friendly.

The digital divide was another point that was picked up on during the Mobile Society, and the framing of this as more of a ‘difference’ than a divide.

Karen Thorne’s presentation during the Social Web parallel session was also commended. Karen spoke about Cape Town TV, of which she is the station manager. Cape Town TV is a community television station working towards empowering poor, disadvantaged areas in Cape by giving them access to communication tools, and also offering a space where communities can have a voice by providing community-generated programmes.

I think that the best tweet of the day came from a quote by a Meraka spokesperson: 'If you build it they will come. Well, we built it where they were'. This encapsulates the thinking of a number of projects that successfully interact with their constituents by understanding their needs and creating interventions and tools that are relevant and firmly situated in their own contexts.

Flickr image:
Using Mobiles in Malawi
In the summer of 2008, an SMS-based communications network was implemented for a rural hospital and its volunteer community health workers (CHWs) in Namitete, Malawi. Located 60 km from Lilongwe, St. Gabriel’s Hospital serves 250,000 Malawians spread over a catchment area 100 miles in radius. Distance presents an often-insurmountable obstacle for patients seeking care at St. Gabriel’s. Many patients walk up to 100 miles to the hospital; those with more resources ride bicycles or oxcarts. In order to report patient adherence, ask for medical advice, or request medical care for remote clients, CHWs had to travel similar distances to the hospital’s doors.

Josh Nesbit, a Senior in the Human Biology Program at Stanford University, traveled to St. Gabriel’s with 100 recycled cell phones, a donated laptop and a copy of FrontlineSMS – a free computer program developed to act as a central text message hub. Over 8 weeks, a total of 75 CHWs were called to the hospital, given cell phones, and trained in text messaging. The volunteers’ locations were mapped, and the phones were disseminated throughout the catchment area. Stationed at the hospital, a laptop running FrontlineSMS coordinates the health network’s activities. The day-to-day program operations were handed over to hospital staff within two weeks.

As a result of the SMS network, the hospital now responds to requests for remote patient care, tracks distant patients, informs CHWs of proper drug dosages and uses, receives patient updates, facilitates CHW-to-CHW communication and group mobilization, connects HIV-positive patients to support groups, and relays outreach HIV testing schedules. In six months, the SMS program has saved the hospital staff 1200 hours of follow-up time and over $3,000 in motorbike fuel. Nearly 1,400 patient updates have been processed via SMS. Over 100 patients have started TB treatment after their symptoms were noticed by CHWs and reported by text-message. The SMS network has brought the Home-Based Care unit to the homes of 130 patients who would not have otherwise received care. Texting has saved 21 antiretroviral therapy (ART) monitors 900 hours of travel time, eliminating the need to hand-deliver paper reports.

(From: http://www.jopsa.org/?page_id=125)
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