How will my phone make an impact?

Every cell phone given to community health workers connects distant patients to a medical clinic. A $10 cell phone will give 50 families access to emergency medical care, health information, transport services, and clinic resources.

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When your old phone is received by the recycling center, it is given a value. We’ll use this value to purchase appropriate, usable cell phones for community health workers at the medical clinics. The average donated phone in the US will allow us to purchase 2-3 cell phones for clinics.

In just 6 months at a hospital in rural Malawi… 150 patients received emergency care, community health workers saved 1,000 hours of travel time which they used to visit more patients, the number of people being treated for Tuberculosis doubled, and the hospital saved $3500 worth of fuel, which was used to purchase medication. We need your help to collect phones for clinics and community health workers who need them.

Health workers trained to text message and a nurse responding to an emergency care request

As phones are distributed, we’ll post video interviews with community health workers, statistics about the impact the cell phones have on patient care, and stories from the clinics receiving phones. We’ll also put up a world map, and show you exactly where phones are going.

CNN story - Text service provides more than a band-aid for rural health service

Guardian story - Free text messages save lives in Malawi

For more information about how FrontlineSMS:Medic works with medical clinics, visit the organization’s website.