OneWorld Mobile

Content to Change Lives

Mobile phone users in Kibera, a large urban slum area in Nairobi, Kenya, are receiving daily texts that provide health tips, community news, job alerts and other local info, as part of the Open Knowledge Networks Mobile Content to Change Lives pilot project.

One local resident who got a text about a local eye clinics opening times said: "I showed my neighbour and they found treatment for a previously undiagnosed problem."

The pilot project is funded by the Vodafone Group Foundation, but is soon to become a self-sustaining social venture in Kenya.
The projects Kazi560 - Kazi means job in Kiswahili - alert service, which matches employers with job seekers, currently reaches more than 22,500 regular subscribers, and the free community news service has 4,000 subscribers. Mobile users can also get quick answers about HIV/AIDS using the interactive MyQuestion service - 2.2 million Kenyans have AIDS -, or get advice for their small businesses on the new Biashara560 service.

Mobile for Good

Following the success of Content to Change Lives in Kenya we are planning more mobile projects in other parts of Africa and Asia. We hope to be sending out potentially lifesaving information by text message to people living on less than USD 2 per day. Accenture is helping to fund the projects.

LifeLines India
The Lifelines India Project is a telephone-based question and answer service that enables marginalised communities in India to share knowledge and receive timely advice.

Initially the project will focus on helping the farming community in three areas of North India: the Bundelkhand region; and in the districts of Sirsa in Haryana and Madhubani in Bihar. Local community members will act as facilitators for the project; experts and information gatekeepers will offer timely information services to the farmers through support networks.

The project will be expanded to cover other areas like education, employment, micro-credit, health care and disaster alerts.

Lifelines India is supported by BT and CISCOs expertise and technology, and will be deployed by OneWorld.

OneWorld Mobile team

Britt, Gopal, Peter and Shashank

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