Though Western panic about the 2014 Ebola outbreak
has largely calmed down, the epidemic remains a deadly
reality in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. With cases
on the rise on the West African coast and fear of the
disease's spreading East to Cote d'Ivoire growing, efforts
to quell the epidemic in this region are of critical
importance. One surprising, and surprisingly effective,
agent of these efforts is, yes, texting.
One way texting has been used to combat Ebola is through
U-Report. U-Report is a communication platform designed
by UNICEF to combat Ebola in Nigeria, and was launched
in April of 2014. It is a subscription-based service
that relies on SMS and aims to spread essential information
about Ebola within the affected region. U-Report subscribers
can ask questions about the Ebola outbreak via text,
and receive reliably accurate answers in real-time.
The availability of accurate and pertinent information
in this region is critical. Due to the fear and stigma
surrounding Ebola, several misleading rumors regarding
the epidemic and disease prevention have spread, often
through social media. Some such rumors, like one promising
that bathing in saltwater and drinking some of it would
stave off the disease, even increased the risk of disease
spread.
The use of texting as a platform for UNICEF's effort
against Ebola is a particularly powerful choice. Not
only is it a fast way to spread information, but it
has proven effective even in regions that are harder
to reach by other means; texting affords U-Report the
broadest reach and therefore the greatest impact.
A texting-based platform has also been effective for
another very important reason. While information is
powerful, the magic of U-Report really comes from its
subscribers' forwarding the informative texts they receive,
causing a sort of signal amplification. In the words
of UNICEF's Geoffrey Njoku, U-Report "is intended to
strengthen community-led development, citizen engagement
and behavioural change." Community-led development,
to borrow Njoku's term, is an especially critical element
of change, and one that is often overlooked in Western
intervention.
The reach and impact of U-Report has been substantial.
The platform gained tens of thousands of subscribers
on its first day alone after launching in Nigeria in
April of 2014, and, with over 100 million residents
of Nigeria owning cell phones, held and exercised significant
power to effect change. The success of U-Report in Nigeria
sets an important precedent for future efforts against
epidemics, including those against Ebola in regions
where the disease is still being transmitted at high
rates.
Additionally, the Red Cross has employed a similar
project in Sierra Leone, known as the Trilogy Emergency
Relief Application (TERA). While this platform is not
as interactive and dynamic as U-Report, it sends periodic
texts for free containing important information and
reminders regarding Ebola to cell phone owners in Sierra
Leone. The use of texting as a platform once again affords
reach to the almost 70% of Sierra Leone residents who
own cell phones, as any cell phone can receive texts,
even in regions where Internet access is not widespread.
Another significant effort to quell the Ebola outbreak
is the United Against Ebola campaign. The United Against
Ebola campaign is an effort backed by 41 telecommunications
companies across Africa in which any customers of these
networks can contribute money to aid efforts against
Ebola. Participants do this by texting "Stop Ebola"
to a set number, for which they will be charged the
equivalent of pocket change, all of which goes to combat
Ebola.
The telecommunications companies participating in United
Against Ebola are encouraging each of their collective
300 million customers to donate by texting, making the
project a promising one. The project is a great example
of African countries' making a strong and effective
effort to create change within their own continent.
The United Against Ebola campaign also demonstrates
the potential power of crowdsourcing, even when applied
to situations as grave as the Ebola epidemic. It also
makes clear the suitability of texting for use in crowdsourcing
efforts, as it is a medium available to large amounts
of people in many parts of the world, even where Internet
access is hard to come by.
These two projects are not the only applications of
texting to the effort against Ebola, but are particularly
powerful examples of this trend. They demonstrate the
strong positive impact of texting and establish a significant
precedent for things like crowdsourcing and work against
future epidemics.
About the Author -
Sharon Housley is the VP of Marketing for NotePage,
Inc. a software company for communication software solutions.
http://www.notepage.net
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