Inaugural Text Messaging Competition Selects Non-Profit Winners From Kenya, Uganda, Mexico and Azerbaijan

CAMBRIDGE, England, February 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- nGOmobile Initiative Helps Global Non-Profits in the Developing
World Reap the Benefits of Mobile Technology

Mobile technology organisation kiwanja.net today announced the winners of
nGOmobile, a competition aimed at encouraging grassroots non-profits in the
developing world think about how they could benefit from text messaging in
their work.

The explosive entry of mobile technology into the developing world has
opened up a raft of opportunities for the non-profit sector.

Text messaging has proved itself to be remarkably versatile, helping
remind patients to take their medicine, providing market prices to farmers
and fishermen, distributing health information, allowing the reporting of
human rights abuses and promoting increased citizen participation in
government.

While the list may be long, not everyone has been able to reap the
benefits.

The inaugural nGOmobile competition ran for three months from October
2007, and was aimed exclusively at grassroots non-profit Non Governmental
Organisations (NGOs) working for positive social and environmental change.
"Behind the scenes, these often unsung heroes of the NGO community battle
against the daily realities of life in developing countries, where it can
take all day to fulfil the simplest task" said Ken Banks, Founder of
kiwanja.net. "These people don't lack passion and commitment, they lack tools
and resources" said Banks.

Grassroots NGOs around the world were invited to submit short project
ideas explaining how greater access to mobile technology - and SMS text
messaging in particular - would benefit them and their work.

The top four entries, selected by a panel of distinguished judges, are
being awarded a brand new Hewlett Packard laptop computer, two Nokia mobile
phones, a GSM modem, kiwanja.net's own entry-level text messaging platform -
FrontlineSMS - and a cash prize of US$1,000.

Sponsors of the competition included Hewlett Packard, Nokia,
ActiveXperts, 160Characters, Wieden+Kennedy and kiwanja.net.

The winning projects, selected from a pool of over seventy entries, come
from Kenya, Uganda, Mexico and Azerbaijan.

In Kenya, the Centre for Training and Integrated Research for ASAL
Development (CETRAD) will begin using SMS to work with local communities to
promote the protection and sustainable use of environmental resources.

In Uganda, NETWAS will launch an SMS-based service for rural communities
allowing them to ask a range of water-based questions on topics such as
sanitation, hygiene, water harvesting and water technologies.

In Mexico, The Equilibrium Fund will deploy a range of SMS services to
help rural Central American and Mexican communities solve problems of
deforestation, poverty, malnutrition, unemployment and the marginalisation of
women.

In Azerbaijan, Digital Development will begin helping grassroots and
politically excluded people understand their human and legal rights, and to
engage them further in the political process, through their mobile phones.

According to Bill Thompson, a member of the Judging Panel, "Mobility has
clearly evolved into a force for social change, and the incredible array of
entries showed how far the tools and thinking in the space have progressed.
But beyond the tools themselves and the functionality they enable, we were
struck but the humanity of the whole process - the passionate hope, the depth
of conviction and the sheer resolve to do good all our entrants showed. Now
the winners get the tools to bring their visions to life over the course of
this year, and we look forward to their success, and sharing their stories to
inspire next year's entrants!"

The competition website, with full profiles and photographs of the
winners, can be found at http://www.ngomobile.org

A second round of nGOmobile will be announced in the coming weeks.

About kiwanja.net

Since 2003, kiwanja.net has been helping local, national and
international non-profit Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) make better
use of information and communications technology in their work. Specialising
in the application of mobile technology, it provides a wide range of
ICT-related services drawing on over 22 year's experience of its Founder, Ken
Banks.

kiwanja.net believes that all non-profits, whatever their size and
wherever they operate, should be given the opportunity to implement the
latest mobile technologies in their work, and actively seeks to provide the
tools to enable them to do so.

Enquiries: 
    Ken Banks
    Founder of kiwanja.net
    Email: ken.banks@ngomobile.org



http://www.kiwanja.net