Vodafone Foundation announces winners of ‘Mobile for Good’ awards 2014
New Delhi, India, November 18, 2014: The winners of the Vodafone Foundation Mobile for Good Awards 2014 were announced in New Delhi on17th November, 2014. Committed to mobilising social change by leveraging the power and potential of the mobile technology, the Mobile for Good awards programme acknowledges and supports ideas and concepts from NGO/NFPs that effectively and efficiently empower communities and change lives in their own unique way. The five winner NGOs, were awarded INR 1.2 million each and will be mentored by NextGen to expand and upscale their capacity, improve project monitoring and enhance impact evaluation of the projects they manage.
Announcing the winners, Marten Pieters, MD & CEO, Vodafone India, said, “With over 900 million users and 90% penetration, mobile phones have become a part of almost every household in the country. This gives a unique opportunity to leverage their reach to connect, engage, develop content and deliver solutions via meaningful applications that can drive positive social and economic change, even in regions and among communities otherwise difficult to reach. We are excited by this opportunity and remain committed to support new ideas, innovations and applications that have the ability to transform society across domains- health, education, empowerment, inclusion and governance.”
Vodafone Foundation Mobile for Good Awards 2014 Main Category Winners:
|
Category |
Project |
| Agriculture & Environment | Self Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action (SRIJAN): A mobile- based soya crop monitoring system that enables women farmers increase profitability, productivity and efficiency. |
| Health | Operation ASHA: Ppasha’s TV Contact Tracing and Active Case Finding software increases detection rates and diagnosis of potential patients |
| Health | Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP): Arogya Sakhi, a mobile application helping rural women entrepreneurs delivering preventive health care at rural doorsteps |
| Health | Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Medical Trust: Eye Connect, a customized mobile application to overcome eye care challenges in remote areas |
| Women Empowerment & Inclusive Development | SNEHA (Society for Nutrition Education and Health Action): Little Sisters project helping tackle the social issue of domestic violence with mobile phone technology |
| Governance | Surat Municipal Corporation: Citizen Connect SMS mobile app to empower citizens with access to information and grievance redressal of local government services |
Main Category Special Mention in the area of Governance:
The Mobile for Good Awards programme has consistently expanded to include and recognize the emerging trends in the rapidly evolving domain of application development. This year, five select NGOs and NFPs with exemplary ideas/concepts in areas of Health, Education, Governance, Women Empowerment & Inclusive Development and Agriculture & Environment were also felicitated.
Vodafone Foundation Mobile for Good Awards 2014 Special Category Winners:
|
Category |
Project |
| Agriculture & Environment | Jayalaxmi Agrotech – For developing a mobile application to provide farmers crop-specific information |
| Education | Chinh India – Early Education Web Channel featuring films for children, made by children on mobile phone |
| Governance | Infocrats Web Solutions Pvt Ltd- For developing a mobile application Citizens Cop to enable citizens help in policing |
| Governance | Tech Services India Pvt. Ltd – JumpinJumpout, a unique way to use mobiles to share vehicles and reduce traffic jams |
| Health | Dimagi Software Innovations Pvt. Ltd – CommCare for CRS ReMiND – Reducing Maternal and Newborn Deaths and helping ASHAs improve quality of home visits |
Presenting the awards to the winners, the Chief Guest, Mr. R. Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM & former Union Telecom Secretary, said,” There is a rising trend in the social development sector to use mobiles and their diverse features and functionalities. Rapidly accelerating trends in enabling transformation through the use of ICT will increase access, enhance efficiency and enable innovation in the sector like never before. The success stories from the Mobile for Good Awards programme clearly indicate how rapidly the trend is accelerating and impacting several domains at once.”
Introducing the awards programme, Rohit Adya, Director, External Affairs, Vodafone India, said, “Since its launch in 2011, Vodafone Foundation’s Mobile for Good Awards programme has supported the growth and expansion of 13 such applications thus far and the winners this year have much to look forward to. We received over 122 applications and our eminent jury spent considerable time understanding the impact and scalability of each application before diligently selecting the winners in each category.”
Founder & Director of Digital Empowerment Foundation, the implementation partner of the programme, Osama Manzar, said, “There is tremendous creativity amongst the non-profit organisations about the usage of mobile and mobility applications. With the help of the Mobile for Good programme we are trying to help the existing innovations achieve scale and replication.”
