TEXTING TO PREVENT EBOLA.

Texting to prevent Ebola

OCTOBER 16, 2014
BY AGENCY
REPORTER

Health inspectors at work | credits:
www.globapost.com
When the recent outbreak of Ebola virus was
first reported in Nigeria, Nne Orji was one of
many Nigerians who bathed in saltwater,
believing that it would help keep her safe
from the disease. She even drank from the
salt solution – a mythical cure that has cost
the lives of a number of people.
She was especially concerned that her
profession as an immigration officer put her at
risk, because of contact with travellers from
other countries.
She was determined to do what it takes to
protect herself, but she didn’t have good
information about what to do. Along with the
widespread fear of the disease, there were
rampant rumours about how it could be
caught – and magical ways to prevent it. Nne
was just one of many who believed them.
That all changed when her mobile phone
beeped with a text message from her elder
sister. Several beeps later, Nne had the
information she needed to help protect herself
against Ebola. And then she started sharing
the messages with colleagues.
The messages were a result of U-Report, a
text-based communication platform
developed by UNICEF and deployed as part
of the social mobilisation strategy against
Ebola. It uses the cascading power of a
single ‘U-reporter’ sharing a message with
multiple recipients, who in turn pass it on to
others.
UNICEF launched U-Report in Nigeria in April
this year. Using Short Message Service
(SMS) messages, it allows individual
subscribers to ask questions about issues, to
get real time answers and to share
information with other U-reporters across the
country. By giving people a new and effective
platform for communicaiton, it is intended to
strengthen community-led development,
citizen engagement and behavioural change.
The outbreak of Ebola saw Nigerians urgently
seeking information on how to prevent the
disease. The use of salt and water to cure the
disease was a deadly hoax spread through
social media. U-Report made it quicker for
people to share and receive information, even
in hard-to-reach areas where other methods
of social mobilisation and outreach are less
effective. In the month after the start of the
outbreak, subscribers increased from 19,000
to 63,000. Many people were asking for and
contributing information on Ebola – causes,
symptoms, treatment and how to prevent it –
as well as sharing with non U-reporters.
Ms. Orji’s sister, Oruoma Odom, a journalism
teacher, became a U-reporter in May this
year at a UNICEF training for journalists and
journalism teachers. “What I do is send out
the messages whenever I receive them to my
brothers and sisters in the countryside,” she
says. “My sister who is an immigration officer
was most grateful, because she did not have
any information about Ebola and being an
immigration officer she felt especially at risk
being, as it were, the first contact with
incoming visitors to Nigeria.”
Educating the public about Ebola
transmission and prevention has been a
critical part of the effort to contain the
outbreak in Nigeria. In addition to house-to-
house campaigns and other social
mobilisation activities providing lifesaving
information on Ebola virus disease, UNICEF
has used the U-Report platform to reach a
large segment of the Nigerian population.
“Within first 24 hours of the outbreak, our
subscribers doubled from 19,000 because of
the accuracy of information. Unsolicited
responses were replied in real time.
Questions, answers and facts from the World
Health Organisation were shared on Twitter
and Facebook on the measures to prevent
Ebola,” says Aboubacar Kampo, UNICEF
Nigeria’s Chief of Health, who oversees U-
Report Nigeria.
“People were asking questions like: Does
bitter kola cure Ebola? Is Ebola Virus Disease
airborne? Does bush meat transmit Ebola?
Can it be transmitted via mosquito bites?”
Kampo explains. “These were the questions
people were asking, because they want to
know, and you cannot blame them.”
In addition to the thousands of U-reporters
sharing messages with friends and relatives,
major radio and television networks in Nigeria
rebroadcast U-Report messages to millions of
their audience.
“We must never underestimate the power of
the social media. With more than 100 million
Nigerians owning a mobile phone today, they
can get the right information or ask their
question and get real-time response from
others as quickly as possible,” says Jean
Gough, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria.
“This is how to engage the communities and
promote necessary social change that people
want.”
•Geoffrey Njoku, Communication Specialist,
UNICEF Nigeria