Last summer, Josh Nesbit, a student of international health and bioethics at Stanford University, and his friends came up with an interesting system that uses mobile technology in the delivery of health care in low resource settings. This system was first implemented at tiny St. Gabriel’s Hospital in Namitete, Malawi, in order to better serve the quarter million people living in the surrounding 100-mile radius. The system relies on SMS, or text messaging, plus a single laptop using a GSM modem and running FrontlineSMS, a free mass messaging program to non-profits.
Community volunteer health workers, from different areas within the hospital’s catchment area, were given cell phones notched with identifying numbers and loaded with prepaid airtime credit for communicating with the hospital. Some of the volunteers were using cell phones for the very first time. $500 was allocated as the annual budget for messages (10 cents per = 5,000). An administrator manning the laptop back at the hospital could send (or forward) messages to all (or some) of the field workers. The volunteers could report on the condition of patients, or spare a home-care nurse a wasted trip to see a patient who’s not at home. If a volunteer sent a message with a drug name, the system automatically kicked back the correct dosage and other information.
In just six months, 150 patients received emergency care, community health workers saved 1,000 hours of travel time which they used to visit more patients, the number of people being treated for Tuberculosis (TB) doubled, and the hospital saved $3,500 worth of fuel which was used to purchase medication.
Health workers trained to text message and a nurse responding to an emergency care request - Source:hopephones.org
Motivated by success in Malawi, Nesbit and his friends now want to scale up the project and duplicate it in Bangladesh, Burundi, Honduras, Uganda, Lesotho and additional clinics in Malawi. They need lots of phones in order to achieve this. They need your help to collect phones for clinics and community health workers who need them most. The Hope Phones campaign which was launched last Monday has now collected over 700 phones.
Apart from donating your old phones, you can help by spreading the word, tweeting, emailing info@hopephones.org to get involved etc. If you’d like to start up a program at your school or workplace, they would also love to hear form you.
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56 users commented in " Old phones save lives in developing countries "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackMany thanks for posting this, Clement! We greatly appreciate your support.
Best wishes,
Josh and the Hope Phones team
joshnesbit´s last blog post..FrontlineSMS:Medic wins $45K at Netsquared Challenge
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It does not have to be massive big expenditure to deliver service to the poor and this is one more instance of low cost but new technology which can benefit millions of the world’s poor.
Nicole Price´s last blog post..Some Risqué and not so Risqué Gift Ideas
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This is amazing! This kind of technology can help many poor people. It can also help many volunteer health workers to make their works faster and easier. Josh Nesbit and his friends are really genius and kind-hearted to set up this kind of system. I hope other poor countries can set-up this kind of health care system, too.
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Thanks for sharing this. I read about this initiative some months back. This is a much better way of making use of our old phones than just spending more money trying to properly dispose of them via recycling, etc. Sometimes we forget that not everybody enjoys the quality of life we have.
Glenn
Glenn´s last blog post..Mortgage Rates Increase
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That is really awesome that they have been trained via text — how creative!
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Looks like amazing and very creative idea!
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that was a great idea. We need to start coming up with more ideas on recycling our old technology.
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That’s a great example of how cheap technology can really impact thousands of lives.
Altesino´s last blog post..Commenthunt review
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It was amazing and first time for me to know SMS can be having these feature.
This will benefit for those have emergency case happen.
wongsk´s last blog post..Run OSX Dashboard Widget In Window
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It is nice technology and I am happy that it will help many people in poor countries. I live in a third world country and I have seen and heard many people died for very nonsense reasons. So, a phone can indeed save many lives.
Kamrul Hasan´s last blog post..Welcome to Sports37 Blog Second Time
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Wonderful idea and concept. I hope it will it will mature to point where everyone will get known and used to it, because it really has many helpful opportunities.
George´s last blog post..A Budget Orlando Vacation
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This is an amazing idea! I wish I had an old phone to donate. I’ll definitely be telling others about this!
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You may be interested in seeing this post which I came across by accident:
http://rummuser.com/?p=1316
Nicole Price´s last blog post..Some Risqué and not so Risqué Gift Ideas
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@Nicole: I have just seen it. Looks like the author is based in Pune, India just like you.
Clement´s last blog post..Old phones save lives in developing countries
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This is absolutely ingenious!
What a unique and beautiful concept to better serve a communities in dire medical need. When resources are already not adequate! Thank you!
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Clement, Do you believe in serendipity? I do! I see that Rummuser (Rummy R) keeps visiting you regularly too!
Nicole Price´s last blog post..Some Risqué and not so Risqué Gift Ideas
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Clement Nyirenda says:
June 7th, 2009 at 12:20 am
I do, especially when it comes to life online. Rummy R might be one of my regular visitors but he does not comment on my posts like you do.
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Incredible idea. What is useless for one may be invaluable for others.
Thanks for posting a nice story.
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I’ve been to a small village in Bangladesh once. I’ve seen the use of mobile phones for the better off the villagers. They use it to learn about farming, weather, even medical aid. This is really amazing how technology is making their life easy.
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Great story indeed. This is really excellent stuff. Small things like these do make a huge positive impact on lives of ordinary folk
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This is a great post and there are so many uses this could be used for it boggles the mind.
Bob´s last blog post..Will denim ever die?
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Josh Nesbit and his friends have come up with a simple yet creative idea that can be used to save many lives. I have seen many collection areas for the used cellphones at universities, including my own. I never got the full story on why they were collecting them, but I believe it might have been something along the lines of this.
Joey Logano Fan´s last blog post..Rookie Profile at Dover
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This is awesome, I’m a huge proponent of expanding technology to underdeveloped countries. This can certainly save lives. I just sent out my old Razr cell phone I have had sitting around forever. Thanks for the great post!
Nick´s last blog post..Targeted Email Marketing
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I live in Bangladesh and currently there are around six mobile operators. Among them Grameen Phone backed by Telenor has been doing some amazing work. They have introduced Palli Phone (Villager’s Phone), and even established Community internet centers in many remote villages. A large number of villagers are getting these services every single day.
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Such heartwarming scenes..
Ben Pei´s last blog post..Ben Pei Visits Japan
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I have worked for Grameen Phone, Bangladesh for 3 years. Basically my job was to find the perfect spot for our products in rural areas. We have introduced free helpline for farmers/ medical advices/ even crops market information. All these have received amazing responses.
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The Panchayat and Rural Development Department in Government of West Bengal, Kolkata, India, initiated a pilot project to empower panchayats at the grassroots level to make them responsive to the needs of the common citizens. To ensure that the problems of the common people are addressed, the Panchayat and Rural Development Department, is experimenting with mobile technology in remote and inaccessible areas.
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This is excellent. I mean, I never thought that this kind of medical support is possible. Kudos to the volunteers as well as the program starter.
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The need for recycling old phones also arises from the concern for the environment. Toxic substances like cadmium found in their batteries can contaminate the water table.
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That is a very great idea that they’ve came up with… It surely did helped a lot of people from Malawi.
Ann´s last blog ..Virgin Mobile USA is joining the trend!
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Some people really know how to save our planet. They got some nice brains to do those things. And thanks for posting this. People will really get inspired to save mother earth with this.
Yuuko´s last blog ..Sola
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Really a great idea. It helps a lot of people at Malawi and save our earth too.
Jose´s last blog ..Doctor, Lawyer and Manager About Mistress
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this is a wonderful example of the good things that technology can bring.
kyle´s last blog ..longboards australia at skateboard express
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a great way to save lives,and we really do need other ideas like that
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What a fantastic post!!
Thanks so much for posting this. My mom is a communications professor doing research on texting. I immediately forwarded this blog to her-what a cool way to use texting, like the discovery bit said-it’s not to find the latest party, it’s to help save lives.
Thanks again.
lindsey´s last blog ..Travel is Easy – Finding Luggage? Not So Much
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What a brilliant idea as it both reuses unwanted items from one person and helps with healthcare for another. We need more of this helping each other.
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A stroke of genius, to be sure. I think we’ve got about three old phones hanging around the apartment. I’d love to get them to a program like this.
Surely the makers of the phones could be prompted to design a basic phone that could be used in this kind of service. Especially given that all of the mineral resources used in making the phones seem to come from Africa.
mwerneburg´s last blog ..fishes
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It’s a great idea of recycling old technology at low cost and it’s good for the environment too..I just hope this idea will mature enough to serve every one around. best of luck !
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I think that helping people who don’t have cell phones is a great idea; there’s tons of stuff that we throw away and don’t even think about that could really benefit someone somewhere!
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Pretty wild that our older US technology gets revived in totally different culture. I wish there were local drop boxes here in Western NC. We don’t have a local place to get rid of old cell phones in my area.
Jeremy Ashburn´s last blog ..Apple’s 27-inch iMac is All-In-One Perfection
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This is a much better way of making use of our old phones. Sometimes we forget that not everybody enjoys the quality of life we have.
Thanks for this great read.
Danny´s last blog ..Retouching The Topic on Mortgage Refinancing
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Beautiful post! That is such a great idea for a way to spread health care and more to low resource countries. Great idea!
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I never realized that I could do so much more with my old cell phones than leave them in my sock drawer. I will strongly consider donating my old phones. Thanks!
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I had bookmarked this page to remember about the Frontline SMS software. Just checked it out today and looks promising for charities. I will do a write up on my non profit blog and post a link back to your article.
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Clement Nyirenda says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Share with me the link once the post is ready.
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Can I donate from outside the United States?
Absolutely. Unfortunately, we cannot offer free shipping for international donations, just yet. We are exploring partnerships and we will keep you updated.
I hope they find a partner to send phones from outside USA. I have a lot of phones as is cheaper to buy a phone in Spain than recharge a pay as you go card.
pablogs´s last blog ..Caminar o Correr ?
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mwerneburg says:
February 3rd, 2010 at 11:00 am
> cheaper to buy a phone in Spain than recharge
> a pay as you go card
Appallingly wasteful. Here in Tokyo people seem to change mobile phones on a more than yearly basis. As is so often the case in this country, waste management is tricky and it’s not clear where these things should be disposed of.
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We seem to just throw away old phones these days, we take for granted what we dont want, when in actual fact could be a life saving tool for a developing country, very poignant post, thanks.
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Thanks for sharing this. I read about this initiative some months back. This is a much better way of making use of our old phones than just spending more money trying to properly dispose of them via recycling, etc. Sometimes we forget that not everybody enjoys the quality of life we have.
AlastairHector´s last blog ..People Most Easily Hypnotized
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This is a wonderful idea and it’s a great way to help people. We recycle a a lot of our old computers to people that need them too. I just can’t bring myself to throw out something thats working fine just because it old. If it can help someone else then why not pass it on?
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That is really great
and very innovative, just goes to show how great Tech can be 
Joey Logano Fan´s last blog ..Drive4COPD 300 Race Results
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This really opened my eyes. Its amazing how giving away something as simple as an old phone can have such a great, positive impact on other peoples lives. I hope more people get involved with this cause.
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Just a quick note: at the very least donate your phones locally. Even if something like this is too much work at least drop it at Whole Foods or a number of other locations that give them to women in need – as emergency 911 phone for abusive spouses in the like. There is absolutely no reason to just throw away and old phone. This also pertains to most of modern technology, although in some cases, like computers, it might take a bit of work to find someone who wants it – but believe me it is worth the work.
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Interesting article! I remember reading recently about the use of recycled phones in 3rd world countries for micro-transactions – eg using the phone to pay for small purchases. Apparently older phones are quite capable of this and it’;s a popular feature.
Tim´s last blog ..More Lab Created Diamonds Questions
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This is a pretty cool story and interesting that our old phones could mean that much to people in other counties. I never know what to do when I upgrade my phone. Now I do!
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Important note. Thanks for the analysis. Wonder how many lives old phones take in developing countries, too. E-waste is one of the worst environmental problems they face, after all.
Nevertheless, very uplifting and interesting! Best, Glenn
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