Hi-tech help for children at risk

Some children must be careful when seeking aid

Children suffering abuse will soon be able to contact the NSPCC's ChildLine via text messages and the internet.

The NSPCC hopes to reach more at-risk children by making use of the technology that youngsters are comfortable and familiar with.

Early trials by the NSPCC show that boys and girls seek help with family problems in very different ways.

The improved access to ChildLine - 0800 1111 - comes as the NSPCC bids to recruit more people to answer calls.

Hi-tech help for children at risk

Software maps Rwandan health

GIS allows scientists to view journey of malaria through the continent
A system of electronic mapping which allows many different types of data to be layered onto a single image is being used to improve healthcare across Rwanda.

The digital maps, called Geographic Information Systems (GIS), are designed to compile information from numerous databases and use it to both track and predict outbreaks of disease.

This can then be used to help developing countries best utilise their limited resources. For example, GIS is used to organise data on clusters of disease and the availability of drinking water.

"Roads, power lines and buildings can be digitised; you can also store attribute information about the buildings, if they are residential or commercial," Max Baber from the University of Redlands in California, who is leading a GIS project in Rwanda, told BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme.

"Once you tie things down to a certain location, you can start to explore the spatial relationships between them."

Gathering information

By putting this information together on a map, correlations can be found between things that might not be obvious from looking at graphs or tables.

Information collected in Rwanda for example shows not only the locations of health services, but water and electricity supplies as well. It also records how many cases of illnesses such as malaria have occurred in different parts of the country.

Software maps Rwandan health

Mobiles combat Kenyan polio outbreak

>EpiSurveyor tracked an emergency vaccination campaign in KenyaA mobile phone based health application has helped to investigate and contain a polio outbreak that threatened thousands in East Africa.

Health officials in Kenya used the life saving application, EpiSurveyor, after refugees fleeing violence in Somalia introduced the first case of polio into the country in more than 20 years.

The application can be downloaded onto handheld devices to log patients' symptoms and any treatment they receive.

Kenyan health workers modified the survey forms used by EpiSurveyor to track an emergency vaccination campaign and managed to stop a potential epidemic in its tracks.

EpiSurveyor has been funded by the United Nations and Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, which is using strategic technology programmes to strengthen UN humanitarian efforts worldwide. It is free to use and is run on an open-source basis.

The trial in Kenya has been so successful that this week the World Health Organisation has announced that it is expanding the project to another 20 countries in Africa.

Outbreak success Mobiles combat Kenyan polio outbreak

The BBC World Service's Digital Planet radio programme spoke to Dr Patrick Nguku from the Kenyan Health Ministry where the project has been piloted.

"In 2006 after 21 years of absence of polio in Kenya, we did confirm a case in our north eastern province and this was followed by massive immunisation campaigns to try and protect susceptible children.

"We used EpiSurveyor to basically control our supplies, monitor which areas needed to be vaccinated and the quick flow of information helped us in achieving very good results", he added.

Texts tackle HIV in South Africa

The text messages have encouraged people to get tested for HIV

The popularity of mobile phones in South Africa is helping to tackle HIV and Aids in the nation.

Project Masiluleke will send one million free text messages a day to push people to be tested and treated.

Approximately 350,000 people die of Aids-related diseases in the country every year.

Trials of the system showed that calls to counsellors at the National Aids helpline in Johannesburg increased by 200% when messages were broadcast.

"I think this is the largest ever use of mobile phones for health information," said Gustav Praekelt, one of the project's originators.

Test case

The United Nations estimates that there are currently six million people living with HIV in South Africa.

"South Africa is the epicentre of the global HIV epidemic," said Zinny Thabethe, an HIV activist who is part of the project.

"You would think that in a country where it is so obvious that we are challenged by HIV that there would be enough knowledge to help people access care or change behaviour."

However, she said, misinformation and stigma remained rife in many communities and testing levels remained low.

"HIV testing is widely available ...but only 5% have managed to test for HIV," she said. "Most people only get a test when they are about to die."

Project Masiluleke was set up to try to counter this and encourage people to seek testing and treatment.

The initiative plans to broadcast millions of health messages every month to mobile phones across South Africa.

It is estimated that there are currently 43m handsets in a country of 49m people. Almost 95% of the phones are prepaid.

"There is near universal coverage," said Mr Praekelt. "And in the absence of other services, the mobile phone has become the central component for people to get access to information."

The system sends the messages using a so-called "Please Call Me" (PCM) service.

This free form of text messaging, found across Africa, allows someone without any phone credit to send a text to a friend asking them to call.

Each sent PCM message has the words "Please Call Me," the phone number of the caller, and space for an additional 120 characters.

The extra space is normally filled with advertising, which helps offset the cost of running the service.

Texts tackle HIV in South Africa