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  • House hunting apps giving agents a run for their money

    September 16, 2021 |

    The Standard |

    Text |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: Kenya, Nairobi

    xPodd is a real-time service that connects tenants to landlords whose listings match their specifications. The app helps prospective tenants navigate Nairobi’s competitive and fast-moving real estate market. Tenants fill out detailed specifications about what they are looking for and xPodd aims to connect them with at least three matching landlords for a small fee. Once matched, they get photos of the houses, their respective GPS locations, and contact information for the landlord. They also receive a number for a xPodd official who can go with prospective tenants to complete the deal.

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  • Rwanda Saving Mothers' Lives With An SMS

    September 14, 2021 |

    Rwanda Dispatch |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Rwanda

    The RapidSMS program provides mobile phones to connect pregnant women, community health workers (CHWs), ambulances, and hospitals. CHWs enter data into phones to track all pregnant women, monitor prenatal care, and identify women at risk of complications. The free platform also allows pregnant women to send a text message to their CHW, who can alert an ambulance to be dispatched to even the most remote regions and give hospitals advanced notice of the women’s arrival. The system has been so effective in improving health outcomes that the government is looking to use it for other medical issues like malaria.

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  • Get There Fast or Safe? A Crowdsourced Map Gives You the Option

    June 29, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: India, Gurgaon

    In 71 cities around the world, users of the My Safetipin mobile app can decide whether to visit a particular neighborhood or plan a travel route based on how safe others deem those places. While the 100,000 or so users, more than half in India, constitute too small a user base to make the mapping app truly universal, its crowdsourced data already have prompted the Delhi and Bogota governments to improve street lighting on streets deemed unsafe because they are not well lit. The app's primary goal is to make the streets safer for women.

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  • How teens are using online platforms to call out racism in high school

    June 16, 2021 |

    Prism |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States

    All over the country, students are using the internet to call out racism. Young people are publishing open letters, creating Change.org petitions and Google Docs “with lists of racist people in their classes, and using online platforms to organize protests.” In Boston, teens from the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center wrote an open letter asking school officials to address the wave of anti-asian hate crimes. After the letter, officials issued a resolution. Although, in some instances these actions do result in change, sometimes it can result in censorship towards students of color.

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  • Local Platforms for Online Food Delivery Are Eating the Big Guys' Lunch

    June 15, 2021 |

    Next City |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Lexington, Kentucky

    Locally owned restaurant delivery platforms charge lower commissions than national giants like GrubHub, allow customers to order food on smart-phone apps, and have found ways to be profitable while also keeping money in local economies. While platforms differ by locale, cooperative models are increasingly popular. For example, Delivery Co-op in Lexington, KY provides customers with unlimited deliveries for a monthly fee, charges participating restaurants a flat monthly fee, and pays drivers a base salary plus tips, with benefits kicking after three months of full-time work and profit-sharing after one year.

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  • How WhatsApp became a tool for Indian police to fight harassment

    April 22, 2021 |

    Rest of World |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: India, Hyderabad, Telangana

    In India, where women face high rates of harassment by men but rarely report abuse because they view the police as hostile, the Telangana State Police encouraged more reporting by turning WhatsApp into an anti-harassment hotline. By using the country's most popular phone app rather than one of the many safety apps designed for this purpose, the police now get about 40% of their complaints through this channel. Turning complaints into prosecutions remains a challenge. But, when women decline to press charges, the police require alleged harassers to attend counseling.

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  • With phones and seeds, jobless Kenyans tackle illegal logging

    April 15, 2021 |

    Thomson Reuters Foundation |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Kenya, Kwale

    As a way to combat unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to prevent further deforestation in Kenya, local rangers are using smartphones, satellite feeds, and global mapping to monitor their forests. The project employs more than 250 people and allows them to target vulnerable areas more effectively. Because of their efforts, there have been lower incidences of illegal logging and forest fires from poachers.

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  • Citizen-Led Initiative Battles Dangerous ‘Infodemic'

    April 06, 2021 |

    Global Press Journal |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Mexico

    Verificovid was started by a group of friends to combat pandemic-related misinformation in Mexico. They work with a group of government doctors to identify, track, investigate, and disprove misinformation. The group posts infographics with updated COVID-19 statistics on social media – mainly Whatsapp and Telegram – and offers medical tips via short audio messages and texts. They prioritize fast-moving misinformation that could cause the most harm and, along with sharing the truth, they investigate the origin of the misinformation and teach the public how to identify and stop fake news.

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  • How META is helping women deliver safely in rural Benue communities

    March 31, 2021 |

    Business Day |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Nigeria, Gboko

    Maternal Expert Thinking Analyzer is a pilot project to prevent maternal mortality that uses a mobile diagnostic, training, and outreach application to help midwives assess the risk of their patients in rural areas. Midwives input data collected from pregnant mothers into the app and generate an automated risk-based assessment score. The pregnant mother then receives a text with advice based on her risk level. A total of 33 midwives across 14 regions are trained to use the app. Initial results indicate that the app has had positive results preventing maternal mortality and even increasing antenatal care.

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  • ‘They track every move': how US parole apps created digital prisoners

    March 04, 2021 |

    The Guardian |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States

    State and federal parole officials have rushed during the pandemic to embrace the use of smartphone apps that monitor the location and behavior of a person on parole. The apps and related data analytics save courts money and time by easing the need for face-to-face meetings. While there are potential benefits as well for the people being monitored, such as not wearing stigmatizing and uncomfortable ankle monitors, some complain the apps are even more intrusive than traditional monitoring – and perhaps more apt to lead to technical violations of parole that can land people back in prison.

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