Unieleze

Using an SMS mobile phone system and mapping to mitigate health rumors and misinformations and improve community health knowledge

James Paluku Kataliko

Coordinator of Kijiji Cha Amani

North Kivu with more than 7,000,000 people and an area of 59,483 km2 is an unstable province in terms of security and health following a frequency of armed groups, its geographical position in the equatorial zone which would be the basis of several diseases including malaria, Cholera, epidemics like Ebola, Covid-19 but also the lower level of knowledge of the populations on the management of rumours and disinformation. 

Some civilians are also becoming resistant to the health programs following rumours and misinformation which was at the root of the attacks on some Ebola treatment centers. https://www.voaafrique.com/a/u...

In the case of war zones like the territories of Beni, Masisi, Walikale and Rutshuru, it would be difficult to have access to all  information to spot new cases of epidemics, because there is displacement of people fleeing the war. According to our study for February 2021, 91% of civilians use a mobile phone in town against 66% in villages with the most used method is still sending SMS.

Our 10,000 subscribers throughout the Province will be supported by a team of 100 community ambassadors who will lead discussion groups in the community, collect the real information that we will disseminate / share with decision-makers including the ministry of health and the health zones. Our subscribers will generate alerts and rumors. We will take time to exchange with them through a simple (short code) and or a free number.

Our  10,000 subscribers will receive true knowledge of preventing epidemics in the environment, restoring trust between the community and healthcare workers and finally reducing the high rate of community violence against emergency health service facilities.

After we have trained 100 community ambassadors and equipped with useful materials and get the 10,000 subscribers to register, we will have discussions on the different issues of perception.

We assume that our 10,000 subscribers come from all over the province of North Kivu which has more than 7,000,000 people and gradually, the appreciation of our achievements may push other members to join our work system.

Each year we plan to train 100 community ambassadors, therefore 3 training sessions for 3 years, which will raise awareness of 3,500 subscribers per year.  In 3 years we will have reached the 10,000 people registered in our system. We will conduct 3 surveys during the project of 500 people each, we will create 30 focus groups in the communities. We hope that we will provide verified answers to 70% of our subscribers.

As we have a good number of community ambassadors and already designed the basics to register subscribers and a website to do the mapping of rumors and alerts that we collect in the community, 
The obstacles to the project are related to the context of the environments that have some poeple living in war zones. The means of mobility for the coordination team to reach the corners of the province to strengthen the capacity of stakeholders in the Project. Finally, equipping community ambassadors with financial resources (airtimes, smartphones, bonuses), tools and materials for mobility for supervisions in villages and towns

The Sentinel Project

I am applying to The Trinity Challenge because I trust them and they are fair in handling cases. But also their plans to submit a solution is a school, they help me build my capacity.

Patrick J McGovern

Because they have a vision that is almost like ours in the use of technology and they can increase our capacity to intervene in the field.