This post is certainly a bit delayed, but to be fair I had a cardio exam this morning. In association with FrontlineSMS:Medic, HopePhones.org launched this morning. Here’s an abridged FAQ to help explain:
“I usually don’t like new things, but the name ‘Hope Phones’ sound pretty inspiring. What is it, exactly?”
Hope Phones is a massive cell phone recycling campaign that will help supply our FrontlineSMS:Medic pilot sites throughout the developing world. We have graciously received support from thewirelesssource.com, which will be accepting, refurbishing, and reselling these phones. We get a certain percentage of the resale value and use that capital to buy appropriate phones for our sites (non-profit, of course!).
“I have so many old cell phones that I NEVER use. How do I donate my old phones right now?”
Go to www.hopephones.org and click on “donate phones.” Tell us how many phones you want to donate, submit, print out the shipping label, package it all, and send it away!
“The recession has hit me pretty hard. I don’t know if I can afford the postage.”
Not a problem- shipping is taken care of 
“That’s great news, indeed. But what is all of that nonsense on the front page?”
Those are the clinical sites that currently stand to benefit from Hope Phones donations.
There’s more infor on the site, but in the interest of time (have class in ten minutes!) I’m going to move on to the other point in the subject.
Quick Bangladesh update. As you’ll see on the Hope Phones website, we’ve forged a partnership with the Smiling Sun Franchise Program in Bangladesh. SSFP is a USAID-funded initiative that is serving many NGOs throughout Bangladesh to uniformly raise the quality of clinics and healthcare services in both rural and urban settings. They have been interested in piloting FrontlineSMS:Medic as a communications bridge between clinical staff and community health workers, and in the past few weeks they have screened all of their clinics to find those best suited to the intervention. They have selected five clinics in the peri-Dhaka region to serve as pilots. I’ll be heading over to Bangladesh in August to help with the setup, and I can’t wait!
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Nadim
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