Providing the answers in Uganda
Kampala – Marie Stopes Uganda (MS Uganda) is working with Google and the Grameen Foundation to provide sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information to people in rural areas of Uganda through a mobile phone network.
The service, which was launched a few weeks ago, is part of a project called the Application Laboratory (AppLab). Five different information applications have been launched under the project, including Google Trader, which matches buyers and sellers of agricultural produce and commodities, and the Clinic Finder Tool, which helps people locate nearby health clinics and their services.
To get answers to their SRH questions users send their questions, such as “will implants make me infertile?” by text message to the service number (6001). The system then analyses the message using Google’s SMS search technology and immediately sends the appropriate answer.
As one of the leading providers of SRH services in the country, MS Uganda was approached by the Grameen Foundation to write the responses to questions about SRH and provide information for the Clinic Finder Tool. The MS Uganda team prepared answers on a huge variety of SRH topics and the recently launched service is already attracting a healthy volume of enquiries.
One health worker found that women could broach SRH subjects more easily with their daughters: ‘some women said that 6001 helped provide an avenue through which they can comfortably teach their daughters about SRH. To them, sitting down and sharing thoughts and questions on such issues using a phone is less embarrassing.’
Another health worker in Katanga, heard about the service and now promotes it, 'being in a Christian church, many youths with STD's keep silent because they think they will be seen as sinners and adulterers. I taught my son how to use 6001. From him many Christian youths have embraced the service, seeking help and advice in private'.
The system is available across Uganda to anyone who can access the MTN mobile phone network, which is the largest network in Uganda. This includes a large number of people in rural areas who are able to use mobile phones through a network of Village Phone operators (VPOs). There are currently more than 10,000 VPos in Uganda, so the service will allow people without access to landline telephones, regular newspapers or the internet to still get SRH advice and information.
Africa is now the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world with more than 280 million subscribers. That figure is expected to double in the next three years.