We often get excited about the potential for technology to disrupt the way we do business. Every day, new businesses reach the market with the latest and greatest tech to improve customer service, make people’s lives easier, or disrupt the status quo. Despite all of these giant leaps forward, some of our most basic challenges remain. For example, millions of people in communities around the world don’t have access to clean water and basic toilets.
In Zimbabwe, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is doing incredible work to serve rural and urban communities. One of their programmes is focused on water, sanitation and hygiene. UNICEF works in over 100 countries to help provide access to clean water and reliable sanitation, and to promote basic hygiene practices that keep children safe from infectious disease.
Gikko provides UNICEF in Zimbabwe with a comprehensive two-way SMS messaging solution to gather data and provide access to information. Using shortcodes, UNICEF can interact with anyone, as long as they are holding a mobile phone in their hand.
Through the deployment of our solutions, we are able to provide first-class messaging solutions both locally and globally, bringing UNICEF closer to rural and urban Zimbabwe. The SMS service also provides information about health and sanitation best practices and other frequently asked questions, all through an easy-to-use interactive interface.
UNICEF communicates with an existing database of reporters and other users from government and civil society, and attracts new users to the service via outbound SMS. The SMS platform is principally used for reporting. This is how it works:
- The user interacts with the WASH SMS service by sending “WASH” to a shortcode.
- Thereafter the user is invited to report on their water, sanitation and hygiene situation:
- Newly drilled water point
- Communal water point
- Your village’s household WASH
- Your school
- Your health institution
Users submit real-time information, allowing UNICEF to build a better picture of what is happening out in the field. As a result, they can allocate resources appropriately and respond to urgent situations as they arise in communities.
By using Gikko, UNICEF knows their service is reliable, and that no user submissions are lost through downtime or other issues. In terms of security, Gikko is also fully compliant with regulations and manages user data appropriately.
