Mobile Technology for Improved Family Planning

MOTIF (MObile Technology for Improved Family Planning) is an innovative mobile phone-based intervention, providing personalised post-abortion family planning (PAFP) support for Marie Stopes International Cambodia (MSIC) clients. Providing women with contraceptive methods following abortion is important to reduce repeat abortion rates. 

The MOTIF project comprised the development, implementation and the evaluation of a mobile phone-based intervention using voice messages(Verboice)  to support post-abortion family planning.

Kamako Chhnoeum: Program Findings from September 1st to October 28th, 2013

The International Labour Organisation’s Better Factories Cambodia program (BFC) launched Kamako Chhnoeum (Outstanding Worker) on September 1, 2013. The system is available for free to workers calling on two networks: Smart and Cellcard. Metfone will join the program soon.

The project uses an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system - Verboice to educate garment  and footwear workers on issues of importance to them. The format is a phone-in quiz where workers answer questions related to salary and allowances, occupational health and safety, and personal health. The caller chooses one topic on which they would like to be quizzed and is then asked a series of three questions.

See more at: http://betterfactories.org/?p=7374#sthash.GbVlwYtE.dpuf

The Wheel of Destiny Is Made Of Paper

Every week until 2010, Dr. Sophornnarith, director of the Kien Svay Operational District (OD), noticed irregularity of the weekly reports of some health centers in the district. The Health Center staff were not careless about completing and sending the reports, but they were expected to follow a process that created logistical problems.

For two years, the combination of Geochat and Reporting Wheel, two technologies developed by InSTEDD, has become the must-have solution for Health Centers to cope with reporting difficulties. And this approach has become a great deal, more reliable and understandable way to complete this critical reporting task. 

INTERN AT THE iLAB SOUTHEAST ASIA: A personal experience by Ariane COMBAL-WEISS

Ariane Combal-Weiss, student, spent twelve days working in the communication department at InSTEDD iLab Southeast Asia in Phnom Penh. Here is what she thinks of her internship.

Before this internship, I have never been fortunate enough to experience the world of work. The knowledge I could retrieve from high school and university has always seemed very theoretical to me, even though it interested and inspired me. Academic knowledge is useful as long as you know what you want to do with it. What I needed was to develop a practical application of my academic knowledge.

I have learned a lot on myself from the internship in the communication services at InSTEDD. I’ve realized that I felt truly interested and involved in the journalist’s assignments, such as looking for information required for articles, as well as writing articles. Understanding complex systems like Data Integration took some time, but I really enjoyed investigating them.

An SMS To Contain Tuberculosis

BY: Ariane Combal-Weiss  :

To answer the request of Family Health International (FHI) to promote earlier tuberculosis case detection, iLab Southeast Asia (iLab SEA), located in Phnom Penh, is designing a step by step TB Lab Result Alert System. It aims to offer early detection of tuberculosis in rural and remote villages in Kampong Cham province and to accelerate patient  access to care. Leveraging mobile technology (SMS), this system is involved in the containment of tuberculosis.

A common scenario: the average man in the street in a rural village in Kampong Cham contracts tuberculosis. He is not aware he has the disease but describes having some symptoms. The village Health Center (“HC”) doesn’t have the facilities to make a diagnosis based on medical analysis, and therefore turns to a specialized laboratory at the downtown district.

Barcamp Yangon 2013: A Personal Experience

BY: CHANNE SUY

Last month, my colleague at the iLab Southeast Asia and I were fortunate enough to attend BarCamp Yangon.  This was my second time participating in the event focused on spreading ICT knowledge throughout the country.  As part of the international network of BarCamp conferences, or rather “unconferences” as organizers refer to it, people from a variety of different backgrounds and geographies come together to create user-generated sessions focused primarily on technology and the web.

While Myanmar is not well known for their technological capacity, they are still responsible for putting on the largest BarCamp events in history. People come from all over the world to participate and I was happy to see lots of international participants (much more than when I was last here in 2011) as well as participants from high tech companies like Google and Firefox.  Having such a diverse community allowed me to connect with local Burmese startups as well as both local and international developers and BarCampers.