Ugandan, Kenyan organisations win in global competition

A statement issued by Kenya's Tell-Em Public Relations said the nGOmobile competition is aimed at encouraging grassroots non-profit organisations in the developing world to think about how they could benefit from text messaging in their business.

The statement said that the entry of mobile technology into the developing world has opened up a number of opportunities for the non-profit sector. "Text messaging has proved itself to be remarkably versatile, helping to remind patients to take their medicine, providing market prices to farmers and fishermen," the statement said. Other benefits include distribution of health information, allowing the reporting of human rights abuses and promoting increased citizen participation in government.

Micheline Ntiru, head of CSI for Nokia in the Middle East and Africa and one of the panel judges, says: "It is good to see some East African organisations benefit from this competition. In emerging markets, we are discovering so many new ways to use mobile phones to enrich and uplift people's lives, both socially and economically."

Other winners of the competition included NETWAS from Uganda, which will launch an SMS-based service for rural communities allowing them to ask a range of water-based questions on topics such as sanitation, hygiene, water harvesting and water technologies.

In Mexico, The Equilibrium Fund is deploying a range of SMS services to help rural Central American and Mexican communities solve problems of deforestation, poverty, malnutrition, unemployment and the marginalisation of women while in Azerbaijan, Digital Development will begin helping grassroots and politically excluded people understand their human and legal rights through their mobile phones.

Nokia, Hewlett Packard, ActiveXperts, 160Characters, Wieden+Kennedy and kiwanja.net sponsored the project.