BBC Media Action's Mobile Kunji Bags the Awards

Recognizing Mobile Kunji and Mobile Academy as innovative and successful Health initiatives, BBC Media action was awarded the award in the Mobile Empowerment for Women and Children category, as well as the Vodafone Mobile for Good award for 2013. The awards were announced at a ceremony marking the 4th annual Mobile South Asia Awards and Conference in New Delhi. The Billionth Mobile South Asia Conference honours excellence in mobile communications across South Asia.

BBC Media Action (previously known as the BBC World Service Trust), the international NGO arm of the BBC, is working with government, communities and individuals in Bihar to build greater awareness of key health ssues and encourage adoption of preventive health practices.This ‘Shaping Demand and Practices' programme, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was initially implemented in eight priority districts in Bihar, with the intention of scaling up successful interventions across the state.

According to BBC Media Action Project Director, Priyanka Dutt, ‘The key thing about this project is that we've found a means to use mobile phones in a way that enable health workers to save the lives of young
children and mothers'.

Using mobile phone technology, BBC Media Action developed simple and effective ways of reaching out to diverse audiences. ‘Mobile Kunji' and‘Mobile Academy' are tools for information dissemination, easily
accessible on any mobile handset. These mobile services are being rolled out for 200,000 front-line health workers (ASHAs and Anganwadi workers) across the state.

Anne Nelson of the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs says, ‘In development work, it's critical to apply technology to local needs and infrastructure as they exist now, not just as they may evolve in the distant future. BBC Media Action's killer app is the phone call.'

Mobile Kunji is a deck of 40 illustrated cards on a ring that communicates life-saving health messages to rural families. Each card carries a unique toll-free short code that when dialled on the health worker's mobile phone, takes the listener directly to free audio recordings that reinforce the health messages. The audio is delivered by a doctor character - Dr Anita - created especially for these services. The messages use the local idiom and are conversational in tone. Mobile Kunji delivers audio-visual content without the need for expensive hardware, and provides health workers with affordable standardised counselling content.

‘I have learnt how to explain things in simple and easy language. Many times people do not listen to us... but when they hear this mobile job aid, they will respect us more'/- Frontline Health Worker, 33, Begusarai.

In the thirteen months since Mobile Kunji was launched, the service has over 100,000 unique users who have accessed over three million minutes of content.

The training course - ‘Mobile Academy': Mobile Academy is an audio training course for health workers, designed to refresh their knowledge of life-saving health behaviours, delivered via mobile phone. The course
is 190 minutes long, but only costs health workers around Rs 95/- to complete. Community health workers can complete this standardised course anywhere, anytime at a fraction of the cost of face to face training.

There are currently over 29,000 unique users for Mobile Academy, who have accessed over 3.5 million minutes of content. To date, 11,000 health workers have completed the course.