Mobile operators in Africa are using the power of their medium to combat the spread of Ebola. Their efforts include launching continentwide text-messaging donation campaigns, expanding help lines and analyzing mobile data to better target aid to affected areas.
Many major operators in Africa are participating in the text-messaging campaign, part of the African Union’s “United against Ebola” initiative, which allows their customers to make a donation to fight the spread of the disease by sending a simple text “Stop Ebola” to a special number (most countries are using 7979). Alternatively, people can donate online at africaagainstebola.org.
The campaign was officially launched Dec. 1, and will run through the end of February. Approximately $36 million has been raised so far, which is being used to train, equip and deploy health workers.
According to the latest World Health Organization reports, Ebola has sickened more than 19,000 people and claimed more than 7,500 lives since the first case was diagnosed in Guinea in December 2013.
While the disease has primarily impacted the western African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, operators as far away as Ethio Telecom in Ethiopia and Vodacom in South Africa are participating in the effort. Several operators are also giving funds directly to the cause. MTN, which has more than 219 million customers across Africa and the Middle East, including the heavily affected Guinea, recently announced a $10 million donation to the initiative.
Vodafone, which has a strong direct presence in Africa as well as through its majority-owned Vodacom and Kenyan affiliate Safaricom, has also joined the effort. It announced a total of $1.25 million in donations, primarily toward the African Union initiative.
“The African Union’s appeal is bringing together companies with a presence all over Africa to provide much-needed, immediate medical support, while mobile technology, the most powerful communications platform across Africa, will provide a means for further fundraising to help fight the Ebola outbreak,” said Andrew Dunnett, Vodafone Group Foundation director.
Notably, a portion of Vodafone’s donation went to increase capacity for its “healthline“ program in Ghana. The service, which offers medical advice and information, has seen a rise in calls in the wake of the Ebola outbreak.
Mobile data is also being leveraged in Sierra Leone through a joint effort that includes IBM, operator AirTel and Kenyan startup Echo Mobile. AirTel is providing a toll-free number that people can use to report Ebola concerns through text or voice. IBM can then use data from the calls, which are made anonymized through a technology provided by Echo Mobile, to help battle the disease. For example, the project has already identified specific areas with growing numbers of suspected Ebola cases. Then, aid agencies can use that information to focus needed supplies and services to those areas.
Something similar is happening in Liberia where they are using cell tower data when people call in to a type of Ebola hotline, protecting privacy while extracting generalized location information for tracking purposes.
Whether it’s being used to raise money or gather important information, mobile technology may prove to be a critical tool in this battle. Mobile plays a particularly important role in Africa, since many people on the continent rely on mobile, not fixed lines, for communication and even for banking. As Sudipto Chowdhury, Airtel’s managing director in Sierra Leone, pointed out mobile technology is “Africa’s most powerful communications platform.”
