Dayn Amade is the founder of Kameleon, a company from Mozambique empowering rural communities with digital learning platforms through TABLET Comunitário, or Community Tablet.
In an interview with ITU this week at the ITU Telecom World event in Budapest, Mr Amade cites the reality of an increasingly digitized world and how the internet has become the first point of reference for questions big and small.
Community Tablets were developed to harness this phenomenon for public health – and they act as a multi-featured educational platform to engage rural communities through educational videos.
Community Tablets are mobile computer devices with large, TV-sized screens transported on a trailer, which allows them to reach even the most isolated rural communities. The large screens enable viewers to quickly learn and absorb new topics, and the technology has been utilized to aid health programme implementation in Mozambique.
Recently, Kameleon has been working to support progress for cholera programs, as well as HIV and family planning.
“When you provide the content, we have to take in consideration where are we going to present because of different religions, cultures and habits.”
And they’re working. According to Amade, “by showing the videos to people, they change their behavior.”
Civic education and public health
Amade knows well that a nuanced approach is required to communicate with a wide range of audiences with diverse backgrounds. To this end, Kameleon utilizes animation to adapt Kameleon’s characters to the wide range of cultural backgrounds of its audience so that content remains relatable for viewers.
“We are talking about civic education,” says Amade. “We provide content. We have a partnership with the biggest university in Mozambique, because when you provide the content, we have to take in consideration where are we going to present because of different religions, cultures and habits.”
Kameleon’s technology has also made strides in other public health solutions. In addition to acting as an educational platform, Community Tablet has incorporated vaccine and medicine refrigeration, data collection, transportation and card-printing – all in one mobile station.
Community Tablet acts as a platform to engage viewers and to inform and address questions around vaccines. By raising knowledge, trust is built – enabling the doctors and Ministry of Health officials who partner with Kameleon to administer the vaccines. Kameleon is also capable of incorporating blood bank equipment with testing facilities – and Amade hopes to increase donations at blood banks around the work.
Registration assistance is provided through the technology’s capacity to take pictures, fingerprints and other data to print registration card. The user is also registered with accurate vaccination information, which prevents double vaccinations.
On the logistics end, the technology allows for video-conferencing, which permits the company to provide assistance and respond to feedback. “We also take the chance to do digital inclusion, because most of these people don’t have access to the new ICT devices,” adds Amade.
Kameleon is mainly funded by the NGOs and governments with which it partners – resulting in zero costs for the end-user.
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