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Submitted by Mike Grenville on Mon, 18 Jul 2005 10:19 |
An SMS service to support the Africa leg of mobilisation for the Global Call to Action Against Poverty
(GCAP) has been launched by Fahamu - an orgnisation that develops distance learning programmes for human rights and civil society organisations. Text in your 'No Debt' message
Users are encouraged to send messages to a number voicing their support for debt cancellation, one of the key demands of the GCAP campaign.
The GCAP SMS project set up by Fahamu was an initiative under the auspices of the Africa Coalition of the Global Call to Action against Poverty before live8 and is an entirely separate initiative.
Txt Your Message
Anyone can voice their support for debt cancellation by sending a message to +27 82 904 3425 with “No to Debt†along with any additional comments they wish to make together with their first name and surname.
To send a message, simply enter the number in your mobile/cell phone, type “No to Debtâ€, your comment followed by your first name and surname and then send the message. The messages are shown on the website www.gcapsms.org and will be displayed at forums taking place during 2005, helping to demonstrate overwhelming support from Africa for debt cancellation.
SMS Campaign For Social Justice
Fahamu conductced another SMS campaign in 2004 to sign an online petition in support of a campaign urging African governments to ratify the African Union's Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.
Director of Fahamu, Firoze Manji, said that "To our knowledge, this is the first time that SMS technologies will have been used on a mass scale on the African continent in support of human rights".
The facility enables those with poor or non-existent internet access to sign the online petition and takes advantage of the fact that there are about eight times more mobile phone users compared to email users in Africa.
Mobile Learning Award
Fahamu uses information and communication technologies as a tool for social change to help organisations and social movements that aspire to progressive social change.
Fahamu was recently one of ten winners of the Gender and Agriculture in the Information Society (GenARDIS) 2005 Award.
The € 5000 one-time grant will be used by Fahamu for a pilot a programme "Mobile learning for change". The idea is to use SMS technology to provide information on new agricultural technology, production information, internet training skills and the rights of women in rural South Africa.
www.fahamu.org
www.gcapsms.org
An RSS feed of the messages is available at http://www.gcapsms.org/sms_rss092.php
www.whiteband.org
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