Automated mobile phone service hopes to stop spread of Ebola in west Africa

People in rural areas of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea battling Ebola could be helped by an automated phone service that offers advice about how to avoid contracting the virus.

Startup company Halt!Ebola is using “robocalling” to reach people where information hotlines are not being used.

The company is trying to acquire mobile phone numbers from the networks operating in these regions to enable them to make the calls. When people answer, an audio message with information and advice about the virus is played back.

By using influential people to record the calls in local languages and dialects, Halt!Ebola believes it could help stop the spread of the disease, said Michael Chu’no Ike, the firm’s co-founder.

“Most people [in rural areas affected by Ebola] have access to mobile phones. We want to place calls to them in a language that they understand, and get people who have the same belief system as them – like elders and religious leaders – to convince them to change their behaviours. We believe that this kind of message will resonate better with rural populations,” Ike said.

The group has placed test calls to about 150 numbers since it was founded in November, Ike said. It has recorded calls in pidgin English, common in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and it is looking for volunteer translators to record messages in other local dialects.

The service was set up during a hackathon hosted by German technology hub Ampion. The hackathon involved 50 participants travelling more than 600 miles across five west African countries on a five-day road trip.

Entrepreneurs, drawn mainly from west Africa, were able to meet with people who are affected by the problems they wanted to help to try to solve, said Jan Schafft, co-founder of Ampion.

“The startups on the bus were encouraged to develop healthcare solutions [for Ebola-affected countries],” Schafft said. “Part of the trip is always that [participants] go out and talk to local people [about] their experiences.”

Health Ops, another startup founded on the trip, connects volunteers with communities in need, allowing information to be shared by text message.

The teams spent five days travelling together before pitching their ideas at a technology conference in Ivory Coast. Participants travelled from Lagos to Contonou, Lomé and Accra before finishing in Abidjan.

Halt!Ebola hopes that after the current Ebola crisis, its platform will remain useful for government, development partners and civil society in communicating information to rural areas.