The deeper penetration of mobile phones in rural areas in developing countries has opened up newer possibilities for organizing various activities for community-based awareness. Ashoka’s Changemakers experimented upon this process in Africa with the support of Hewlett Foundation and carried out outreach interventions. Their experiment led to the creation of an open source software application where the use of a laptop and mobile phone could convert itself into a communications hub. One of the important outcomes of this project has been the publishing of a useful “quick start” guide in collaboration with Kwinja.net for NGOs on how to use SMS for social change.
Whether it is for organizing a preventive health awareness campaign, or for reaching out the farmers to inform them about market prices or for alerting people about disaster emergencies or for recording cases of human rights violation, a simple SMS can tremendously assist NGOs in reaching out their communities and enabling sustainable social changes.
The use of SMS for community development activities is not only innovative but it can also be inexpensive, saving costs also otherwise on direct trainings and transportation to remote villages. The SMS Quick Start Guide also provides information about different types of costs involved in setting up a cellphone-based campaign for NGOs in developing countries. It also gives details on the pre-requirements necessary for such a project, the equipments to be used and how to get in touch with the network provider for technical support. The guide also gives a user-friendly description of how the process works. There are also external links in the guide which can be used for learning more about setting up the project at lowest cost. For organizations which are interested to submit proposals to donors for such a project, there is an external link listing out the budgetary items necessary for it.
The free guide can be downloaded from this link. To read the post on how to budget such a proposal, click here.
