R U Ready to Fight Ebola
Summary
With cases on the rise on the West African coast and fear of the diseases spreading East to Cote dIvoire growing, efforts to quell the epidemic in this region are of critical importance. The success of U-Report in Nigeria sets an important precedent for future efforts against epidemics, including those against Ebola in regions where the disease is still being transmitted at high rates. While this platform is not as interactive and dynamic as U-Report, it sends periodic texts for free containing important information and reminders regarding Ebola to cell phone owners in Sierra Leone. The telecommunications companies participating in United Against Ebola are encouraging each of their collective 300 million customers to donate by texting, making the project a promising one. It also makes clear the suitability of texting for use in crowdsourcing efforts, as it is a medium available to large amounts of people in many parts of the world, even where Internet access is hard to come by.