Praekelt Foundation: Young Africa Live, SocialTXT, and TXTalert data sheet 8142 Views
The Praekelt Foundation was founded in 2007 as the nonprofit/NGO offshoot of Praekelt Consulting. The NGO now runs three programs that work to better the lives of people living in poverty in South Africa. Each of those programs (Young Africa Live, SocialTXT, and TXTalert) use mobiles to achieve that goal.
At Aware Networks we develop mobile applications for consumers and organizations. Our Cliqtalk product enables the creation of mobile communities that collaborate on topics of shared interest. We work with associates to deliver mobile Web services and offer consulting services in cellular telephony and software technologies.Our website is at: www.awarenetworks.com
Consumentor is a cooperative with 10 employes.Our goal is to offer a simple and flexible tool that enables all consumers to make longterm sustainable consumer choises on a daily bases. It should be easy, fun and awarding to do right !
GUIDE: Getting Medical Information into the Hands of Community Health Workers data sheet 5046 Views
For community health workers who are far from medical libraries and urban centers, staying up-to-date on the latest medical advancements and disease treatments can be difficult. GUIDE, developed by AED-Satellife, is a conversion and content management system that transforms medical literature into HTML forms that are easily accessible over a mobile phone.
GUIDE currently runs on smartphones (Samsung I780) in a pilot program in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. For the last year, 50 nurses from three different branches of local hospitals have used mobiles to stay up to date on medical developments.
Can text messages help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS? Text to Change (TTC), a Ugandan NGO, thinks the
answer is yes. To prove it they have teamed up with Zain to launch an innovative project that utilizes a technology that has been rapidly expanding to make sure that HIV/AIDS does not do the same.
Text at Work and Stay Healthy: HIV/AIDS Prevention in the Workplace data sheet 1292 Views
Author:
Hajo van Beijma
Publication Date:
Feb 2010
Publication Type:
Report/White paper
Abstract:
Through a pilot partnership with the Text to Change (TTC) initiative, HIPS is using an innovative tool to support companies in providing key prevention messages and education on HIV/AIDS to their employees and community networks – text messages. Early results are promising: the launch of the program resulted in a 40% increase in demand for sexual and reproductive health services from participant company clinics.
Getting the Word Out About HIV: Imbizo Men's Health Program data sheet 4722 Views
(This case study is reprinted with permission from Glen Thompson of BulkSMS.com)
HIV support programme uses SMS to keep men connected
This case study illustrates that the use of appropriate mobile technology has a positive impact on maintaining men’s participation in a health programme focusing on HIV testing and education.
Recent research findings on the Imbizo Men’s Health Programme indicate that its male participants responded positively to the use of SMS communications. SMS was used to remind participants to go for HIV testing and inform them of upcoming events promoting AIDS and gender awareness. Taken together, this use of mobile technology has played an important part in ensuring that men have remained involved in this public health initiative.
ClickDiagnostics is a global mHealth enterprise formed to address the world’s problem of lack of access to medical specialists and real-time health data needed for strategic intervention.
The concept of ClickDiagnostics was born in an MIT class and nurtured in campuses of Harvard University and MIT by a few graduate students and fellows. In the process of emerging as the winner of the Development Track of the MIT 100K Business Competition in 2008, ClickDiagnostics turned into a company that quickly spread its operations across several countries in the developing world, striking key partnerships with governments and large NGOs.
ChildCount: Monitoring Children's Health Through SMS data sheet 7889 Views
Many mobile projects struggle with scale and impact. While a mobile health project may run well with a small number of patients in one hospital, expanding the scope of a project until it is large enough to have real impact takes money, time, and widespread support of key stakeholders in a given community. ChildCount is well on its way to show scale and, so we hope, significant health impacts using mobile technology for patient support.
In a little over eight months, ChildCount has enrolled nearly 10,000 children under five in their catchment area into the ChildCount health monitoring system – an acceptance rate of more than 95%.
HIVSA's mission is "to develop and implement innovative and multi-disciplinary programmes which directly contribute to the increased wellbeing, upliftment and life skills education of people living with HIV."
The Vodafone Americas Foundation is announcing the last call for nominations for the second annual Wireless Innovation Project, a competition to identify and reward the most promising advances in wireless related technologies that can be used to solve critical problems around the globe. Proposals will be accepted through February 1, 2010, with the final winners announced on April 19, 2010 at the annual Global Philanthropy Forum in Redwood City, California.
Editacuja is a Brazilian startup focused in knowledge management and contend development services for education, training and culture.
Integrate emerging technologies to provide innovative solutions to companies, universities and schools, enabling cross border iniciatives with high ROI
Works with a multi-media approach, enabling mobile, press, audiovisual and web media services and products.
With a multi-disciplinary team, Editacuja adds value and knowledge for projects that can educate and relate.
"Innovations in Mobile Data Collection for Social Action," a workshop co-hosted by MobileActive.org and UNICEF in Amman, Jordan, featured Ignite Talks -- five minute presentations by inspiring people who are using mobiles for social action in the Middle East -- and interviews with key participants. Jacob Korenblum describes the work of Souktel in Palestine, and Erica Kochi from UNICEF Innovation, the co-host of the event, illustrates why data collected by mobiles is so important for their work in Iraq.
We will be blogging and twittering this week from a workshop we are co-hosting on Innovations in Mobile Data Collection for Social Action in Amman, Jordan.
Co-hosted by UNICEF’s country office in Iraq, UNICEF Innovation, and MobileActive.org, this three-day gathering is bringing invited experts from around the world together to explore some of the key issues related to using mobiles for data collection and analysis of some of the toughest social issues.
Why are we hosting this event?
With the ubiquity of mobile technology, data collection and monitoring of key indicators from the ground up by affected populations is now possible. Mobile technology in the hands of people can now be more than a person-to-person communication medium but can be used for capturing, classifying and transmitting image, audio, location and other data, interactively or autonomously.
Mobile phones are becoming prolific in society, both in industrialized and non-industrialized countries. Of all of the developments in new media, mobile is the only one that seems to be narrowing the digital divide rather than widening it, making it a crucial tool in improving the health of poor and hard-to-reach populations. Organizations around the world are beginning to implement mobile technology into their health behavior interventions and are seeing rising success. In diabetes and other chronic disease management, mobile phones are being used for medication alerts and health reporting. The technology is being used to send sexual health and HIV/AIDS information in places like downtown San Francisco and rural Africa, as part of ongoing testing, counseling and prevention services. In the US, applications involving GPS technology, video games, and persuasive technology are all being tested for their effectiveness in influencing health behavior and applicability on mobile phones.
Through published research and interviews with key leaders in the mobile health field, this paper outlines the benefits of mobile technology and the barriers to integrating mobile fully into public health campaigns. Despite the enormous work already being done and a host of new technologies on the rise, most experts will agree that mobile phones on their own will not serve as primary tools for influencing health behavior. A comprehensive and integrated campaign that incorporates mobile will be most effective, but mobile alone faces too many barriers to fostering social norms on the wide-scale. In fact, many argue that the ways in which public health advocates are able to place health messages in broadcast media cannot be applied on cell phones because of society’s growing resistance to mobile marketing.
The paper asks: What are some examples of how organizations around the world have harnessed mobile technology to improve the health behavior of disease-specific and target populations? What lies in the future for mobile technology and health? Is mobile the answer we have been looking for?
Qton provides development and government organisations in the emerging markets with appropriate mobile and web based applications.
With extensive experience in mobile applications and software development Qton has a knowledgeable team committed to supplying affordable and effective solutions.
Aim
To assist organisations achieve their aims by enabling basic mobile phones to:
Innovations in Mobile-Based Public Health Information Systems in the Developing World: An example from Rwanda data sheet 3079 Views
Author:
Jonathan Donner
Publication Date:
Jan 2008
Publication Type:
Report/White paper
Abstract:
This paper will examine new applications of mobile and wireless technologies to the challenges of public health in the developing world, particularly the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). After a brief review of initiatives underway in Africa and India, the bulk of the paper will describe a national HIV/AIDS information system currently under development in Rwanda.
This system relies on a combination of internet technology and traditional telephony (both fixed and wireless) to connect even the most remote rural health clinics. Potential merits of this system will be examined in light of Heeks’ (2002) review of information systems projects in developing nations. This analysis will suggest that certain fundamental properties of wireless/mobile technologies are likely to increase the efficacy, scalability, and sustainability of public health information systems in low teledensity settings.
The paper applies both to the “mobile technologies for disadvantaged persons” as well as to the “doctors communicating with doctors” tracks. However, given the severity of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and given its particular impact on the LDCs, it is important to consider these applications as critical tools in what can only be described as one of the biggest and most protracted “health care emergencies” the world has ever confronted.
As part of our 'deconstructing mobile' series, we have been looking closely at the claims that have been made about mobile technology for a more realistic assessment of mobiles in social development that is based on data, rather than hype. Unlike more recent reporting on the topic, the Financial Times has an interesting article that questions whether mobile tech can actually "fill the gap left by underdeveloped healthcare system,' particularly in Africa.
As has been reported, the challenges in delivering health care in many African countries are stark. As the Financial Times points, out, there is 'an acute shortage of resources and trained staff means that more than 50 percent of the region’s population is estimated to lack access to modern healthcare facilities."
Mobile Phones and Development: An Analysis of IDRC-Supported Projects data sheet 3222 Views
Author:
Ahmed T. Rashid, Laurent Elder
Publication Date:
Jan 2009
Publication Type:
Journal article
Abstract:
In the context of the rapid growth of mobile phone penetration in developing countries, mobile telephony is currently considered to be particularly important for development. Yet, until recently, very little systematic evidence was available that shed light on the developmental impacts of mobile telecommunication.
The Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) program of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, has played a critical role in filling some of the research gaps through its partnerships with several key actors in this area.
The objective of this paper is to evaluate the case of mobile phones as a tool in solving development problems drawing from the evidence of IDRC supported projects. IDRC has supported around 20 projects that cut across several themes such as livelihoods, poverty reduction, health, education, the environment and disasters. The projects will be analyzed by theme in order to provide a thematic overview as well as a comparative analysis of the development role of mobile phones. In exploring the evidence from completed projects as well as the foci of new projects, the paper summarizes and critically assesses the key findings and suggests possible avenues for future research.
For the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the number 15 just made sense. It is now 15 years since the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development, when 179 governments agreed on a yet-unfulfilled plan to provide universal sexual health services by the year 2015. With the children born the year of the conference now 15 years old, the foundation felt it was time to act.
So the campaign 15andcounting was born. The campaign aims to engage young people in sexual health advocacy, mainly by having them sign a petition and complete a survey accessible both on the web and on a mobile WAP site. The petition will be presented to the United Nations in mid-October.
"They need access to condoms and high quality information, and all these services that were talked about in 1994," said Chris Wells, creative design director of the International Planned Parenthood Foundation, of the 15-year-olds born the year of the conference.
At Citizen Logistics, we’re developing new game-like ways of working, volunteering, finding assistance, and having a good time. Anyone can play, and you get points for making other people’s dreams come true. Our software will let you find cool things to do, build teams, and connect people with jobs and resources, all via the text messaging capability of your cell phone.
Here are some mobile events for the month of October that we thought are noteworthy and of interest to the MobileActive.org community. If you know of others, please mail us at info at MobileActive dot org.
The first Mobile Web Conference in Africa is a two-day event in Johannesburg that focuses on some of these key questions: How will the mobile industry evolve to a point where the vast majority of people have access to the mobile web and the content they want to view? How can societal and economic problems be tackled by the development of the capabilities of the mobile device?
PopTech explores major trends shaping our future, the social impact of new technologies, and new approaches to addressing the world’s most significant challenges. Several PopTech Fellows are part of the MobileActive.org community, including Deb Levine from Isis.inc, a leader in using mobile phones for sexual health education.
(This is part of a series of posts reporting on mobile media project from Highway Africa 2009 and Digital Citizen Indaba 4.0. Both were held in Grahamstown, South Africa, September 2009).
Brenda Burrell of Kubatana.net in Zimbabwe runs Freedom Fone, an audio tool for information services. She presented Freedom Fone in a workshop titled “Bringing down the barriers: Interactive audio programming and mobile phones” at Digital Citizen Indaba 4.0.
FreedomFone comes from the desire to deliver information to “those who need it most,” people with simple phones without GPRS connections. Freedom Fone integrates a content management system (such as Drupal) with information services via SMS and voice.
WildKnowledge (WK) are a spin out company from Oxford Brookes University in the UK. WK enables members to create and share mobile recording forms (WildForm), decision trees (WildKey), maps (WildMap) and diagrams (WildImage). These tools enable the user to make informed decisions in the field and gather good quality data. This collated data can then be uploaded and shared as part of collaborative projects. Most of our members are UK school children and students, we are keen to explore new areas both geographically and contextually. All WK applications are wep apps and can work on any device with a web browser from a mobile device to a laptop (functionality will vary according to browser's capabilities).
Claim Mobile is a platform designed to support a project that subsidizes healthcare by reimbursing health service providers in Uganda for treatment of patients with sexually transmitted infections. Claim Mobile is the subject of a research paper by Melissa R. Ho, Emmanuel K. Owusu, and Paul M. Aoki called "Claim Mobile: Engaging Conflicting Stakeholder Requirements in Healthcare in Uganda."
