RapidSMS in Zambia

UNICEF country offices are where it all happens.  We have had the pleasure of working with incredible staff in both the Malawi and Zambia offices.  The depth of dedication and the multitude of roles that everyone in the office takes on is humbling and the trips are a non-stop learning experience.  And sometimes the offices even have awesome satellite dishes out in front of them.

All of our RapidSMS projects are developed with close coordination with Country Offices.  For us to build an effective software solution we need a tangible problem to try to solve.  Our team generally works with country offices to help frame the problem and explain what RapidSMS can and can't do, but it is really the invaluable experience of the staff in the office that defines the success of a project.  The office also takes time from their busy schedules to coordinate the logistics of our trip, arrange meetings with government and partners, negotiate with telecoms and do the contracting and hiring for additional staff needed for the projects.

   

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UNICEF_Country_Offices.zip (248 KB)

On Sunday we held a workshop for local Zambian developers on RapidSMS.  There is an excellent group of highly engaged devs that meets once a month.  Started by Mwansa and Albert a just few months back and being on a Sunday afternoon with short notice, we were not sure we would get a good turn out.  We were wrong.  Every seat in the room was full.  The workshop lasted four hours and we were amazed by everyones attention and focus.  We discussed what RapidSMS was and how it has been used in other countries, gave an overview of the project we are doing in Zambia and Malawi, and then Evan coded an app live in front of the group based on a suggestion by a group member.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the session and caught all sorts of syntax errors as they were typed and had great suggestions on how the app should work.  At the end of the session we had an app that could record and tell people scores of football games.

Afterwards, a few people stayed for another few hours hacking away with Evan trying to get RapidSMS to work with their phones.  Overall it was a really fun afternoon and a pleasure to meet so many intelligent and talented people!

         

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meeting_with_the_ZamDev_develo.zip (352 KB)

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.  It is an hour and ten minute flight if you fly directly from Lilongwe to Lusaka.  Due to scheduling we had to fly via Johannesburg, South Africa.  Unfortunately it was stormy and we got stuck in Johannesburg for many hours meaning a trip with an "effort" of about 2 hours turned into a trip with a "duration" of over 12 hours.  Maybe we need to do some process modeling of  our scheduling!

The district we visited today was Chikwawa and in the Southern Region of Malawi bordering Mozambique.  It is down on the plains and very hot and malarial.  The health infrastructure in the district was quite poor and there were not as many partner organizations providing the district assistance. The district hospital we were in was very busy with many people waiting outside in the shade under the trees.  Despite the lack of resources the the HSA's, Nurses and Doctors had developed systems to maximize what they had, swapping off rooms and gathering information like blood pressure while mothers and infants waited in line. All the children under 1 years old were weighed and immunized if they still needed immunizations and all the mothers waiting in the waiting room received an informational session in the local language of Chichewa on good health practices in the morning.

There was also a small lab in the district hospital that was able to process results for a huge variety of needs from Malaria to CD4 counts. One problem was that some of the equipment gave incorrect readings when the temperature was over 30 degrees Celsius, so many tests needed to be run in the morning.

On the drive back from the south to the capitol of Lilongwe we passed within a few feet of the border of Mozambique. Later as we passed the granite domes that periodically dot the landscape of Malawi we were treated to a fantastic sunset over the mountains in Mozambique.

       

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Chikwawa_and_the_return_to_Lil.zip (263 KB)

Today we had the opportunity to visit a facility at each stage of the Early Infant Diagnosis process.  We spent time at a rural clinic and got to see where the samples are collected, how they are recorded and the systems for letting the mothers know their infants results were returned.  We also got to see the district hospital that acts as a hub for the rural facilities and see where the samples are stored and discuss how they are brought, how they are picked up and what is recorded.  Finally we got a tour of one of the two labs in Malawi that is equipped with PCR machines that can analyze the dried blood samples and got a very thorough tour of the facility and the processes used.  The photos show some of the steps in the analyzing of the samples.

All of this will be critical when designing a system to help speed up the turn around time from when the samples are collected to when the mother gets them.  While the overall process is similar to Zambia the details were different and overall the system was simpler.

Tomorrow we visit some more facilities for comparitive analysis.

     

Click here to download:

Clinics_Hospitals_and_Labs.zip (145 KB)

The flight to Lilongwe, the capitol of Malawi seemed to take less time than our previous trip to Lusaka but it actually was about the same.  I suspect we are getting used to the flights!  Lilongwe is a city of about 1 million people. Despite this, Lilongwe is the most relaxed capitol city we think we have ever seen with no real density to speak of. There is open space everywhere but not in any formal sort of way, just large wild undeveloped areas.  There are a few tall buildings here and there and most buildings are in compounds. One of the nice things about Lilongwe is the city wide landscaping and gardening.  All the compounds have lush gardens at their gates and even the round-about traffic intersections have amazing gardens in them.  And unlike most other African cities there is no traffic here to speak of. Which makes it quite pleasent and peaceful. 

     

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Arrival_in_Malawi.zip (336 KB)

After our Sefofane pilots landed successfully on the eroding tarmac at Mansa airport, we taxied to the waiting UNICEF van. It drove onto the tarmac to meet us. Mansa is building a small terminal building to accompany the airstrip and the workers had all paused to watch us come in. We were probably the most action they’d seen in a while.

The van barreled down the road to town, honking periodically at the constant stream of pedestrians passing on both sides. Mansa is the provincial capital of Luapula, a town of about 250,000 people, abutting the main thoroughfare at the edges and clustering into a low-slung administrative center for the province. It is also an independent district, one of nine in the province. In terms of service delivery, it is probably the most effective of the districts. The population is young – nearly half under the age of 14, with a growth rate of around 3.3% per annum. The main economy seems to be agriculture, fishing and limited service provision; most locals practice subsistence farming.

We checked in at the Mansa Hotel, a formerly three-star establishment that seems to have been downgraded with the swipe of a whiteout pen. It was once government owned, and apparently quite swish in its heyday. It has been privatized, and seems to have suffered from graceful decay in the meanwhile. Fans were indolent, water intermittent, and internet nonexistent, but the staff is enthusiastic and polite, and the rooms spotless. As an added benefit, the setting itself was lovely - the grounds were immaculate, the flowers lush, and the breezes cool. As a place to sleep, it acquitted itself admirably.

After an afternoon of meetings (details to come) we explored the city of Mansa. We stopped at the local grocery store, Shoprite, a warehouse of a store stocking everything from broccoli florettes to Red Bull to wine glasses. We wandered around agog at the options. In Lusaka, the experience of a finely stocked Spar grocery market was impressive, but understandable. In Mansa, it was a bit surprising. Whether it was affordable for the majority of the population was another question altogether, but business that night seemed brisk.