text to change

Mobile Phones for Health Education in the Developing World: SMS as a User Interface

Posted by TextToChange on Mar 10, 2011

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Mobile Phones for Health Education in the Developing World: SMS as a User Interface data sheet 2694 Views
Author: 
Catalina M. Danis, Jason B. Ellis, Wendy A. Kellogg, Hajo van Beijma, Bas Hoefman, Steven D. Daniels, Jan-Willem Loggers
ISSN/ISBN Number: 
2147483647
Publication Date: 
Jan 2011
Publication Type: 
Journal article
Abstract: 

Uganda suffers from a severe shortage of professional healthcare workers. Thus, programs aimed at prevention of disease are an important complement to the limited healthcare delivery system.

We analyze two deployments of an SMS-based HIV/AIDS education system that uses a quiz format to assess people’s knowledge of the disease, including its causes and methods of prevention. The deployments were to two groups in Uganda, one a sample of mobile phone users who live in a town in northwest Uganda; the other, workers at three factories in central and southeastern Uganda. The two samples had accuracy rates above chance levels and workers at the three factories had higher rates of participation (more individuals and more questions) than the sample selected from the cell tower service area. An analysis of incorrect answers suggested that while participants had some difficulty in matching the formatting required by the quiz, literacy did not appear to be a significant problem.

We discuss the results in terms of implications for using SMS as a user interface mechanism and explore the possibility of using social ties among participants as a way to promote the scalability and sustainability of this quiz-based education method.

Paper URL: 
http://dev2010.news.cs.nyu.edu... 


 




  
Mobile Quizzes For HIV/AIDS Awareness: Zain and Text to Change


Posted by AnneryanHeatwole on May 18, 2010





 

        
      
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Mobile Quizzes For HIV/AIDS Awareness: Zain and Text to Change data sheet 6193 Views

	
In Kenya, a partnership between the non-profit organization Text to Change and the telecommunications company Zain used SMS mobile quizzes to keep Zain’s employees up-to-date on the latest HIV/AIDS information.


For four weeks in November and December of 2009, Zain’s Kenyan employees were part of a pilot program for SMS mobile quizzes. Employees received three multiple choice questions each week that focused on different aspects of HIV/AIDS such as prevention and treatment. The quizzes also directed participants to testing centers in order to learn their HIV/AIDS status. Says Bas Hoefman, co-founder and managing director of Text to Change,  the choice to partner their mobile program with a telecommunications company was logical: “We thought, ‘why isn’t Zain using its own products – mobile telephony and SMS – to educate its own employees?’  Use your own product for your own employees.”
Basic Information

      
Website URL: 

    

            

                    http://www.texttochange.org/        

        





      
Organization involved in the project?: 

    

            

                    Text to Change        

        





      
Project goals: 

    

            

                    
Use interactive quizzes to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS among Zain employees in Kenya.


 

        

        





      
Brief description of the project: 

    

            

                    
Text to Change partnered with telecommunications company Zain to run an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign. The pilot used interactive SMS quizzes based on Text to Change's existing SMS platform to get employees to answer questions about HIV/AIDS, and to encourage them to get tested for HIV/AIDS. The pilot ran for four weeks in November and December of 2009, and had an overall response rate of 43%.


Text to Change offers interactive mobile SMS quizzes, combining knowledge transfer with incentives in the form of airtime. The SMS Quiz is  designed to raise and help resolve key issues around local development programs.

        

        





      
Target audience: 

    

            

                    
The target audience was 506 Zain employees in Kenya.


 

        

        






Detailed Information

      
Mobile Tools Used: 

    

            

                    Text to Change HIV/AIDS SMS         

        





      
Length of Project (in months) : 

    

            

                    1        

        





      
Status: 

    

            

                    Ended/Complete        

        





      
What worked well? : 

    

            

                    
    

  • The 43% response rate was considered encouraging, and the fact that there was a 10% increase in employees who sought health services during the course of the pilot.
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  • Text to Change also found that the partnership was a good foundation for setting up telecommunications contacts in order to launch future projects outside of their home-base country, Uganda.
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What did not work? What were the challenges?: 

    

            

                    
The pilot faced several challenges:


    

  • Employees didn't want their co-workers to see them going to the on-site testing center because of the stigma of HIV/AIDS. 
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  • Due to the sensitive nature of some questions, Text to Change had to ensure the privacy of the employees' responses. 
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  • Adapting Text to Change's technology from Uganda (where the company is based) to run in Kenya.
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Texting against AIDS


Posted by TextToChange on Mar 09, 2010





 

        
      
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Texting against AIDS data sheet 1954 Views

	

      
Author: 

    

            

                    Hajo van Beijma        

        





      
Publication Date: 

    

            

                    Oct 2009        

        





      
Publication Type: 

    

            

                    Magazine or newspaper article        

        





      
Abstract: 

    

            

                    
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


Posted by TextToChange on Mar 09, 2010





 

        
      
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Text at Work and Stay Healthy: HIV/AIDS Prevention in the Workplace data sheet 1133 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.