Working with fellow Peace Corps volunteer Jennifer Moore of Gillette, Wyo., Khan designed and launched the software in February that provides health information through mobile phone-based text messaging. The nationwide program initially provided prewritten content on health topics but was expanded to give callers the option of speaking directly with 11 Peace Corps volunteer health workers and a counselor from the non-profit counseling hotline Childline/Lifeline. "The beauty of the system is it permits people to ask questions they wouldn't ask directly, and provides excellent information in a non-threatening way," said Peace Corps/Namibia Director Hannah Baldwin. "It is a wonderful innovation to harness widely-available technology in the fight against HIV/AIDS," said Peace Corps acting Director Jody K. Olsen.
Rashid Khan and Jennifer Moore have developed an interactive healthcare software program for Namibia
Peace Corps lauds Mt. Pointe grad
by Coty Dolores Miranda - Aug. 3, 2009 07:50 AM
Special for The Republic
Rashid Khan, a 2001 Mountain Pointe High School grad who entered the Peace Corps in October 2007, has been lauded by the Peace Corps for co-developing of a new software that "revolutionizes health education in Namibia. "
Khan, 26, as an information technology and systems administration specialist before entering the Peace Corps, helped create Health Education Response (HER) in the southwestern African nation that celebrates its 20th year of independence in 2010.
Working with fellow Peace Corps volunteer Jennifer Moore of Gillette, Wyo., Khan designed and launched the software in February that provides health information through mobile phone-based text messaging.
The nationwide program initially provided prewritten content on health topics but was expanded to give callers the option of speaking directly with 11 Peace Corps volunteer health workers and a counselor from the non-profit counseling hotline Childline/Lifeline.
"The beauty of the system is it permits people to ask questions they wouldn't ask directly, and provides excellent information in a non-threatening way," said Peace Corps/Namibia Director Hannah Baldwin.
"It is a wonderful innovation to harness widely-available technology in the fight against HIV/AIDS," said Peace Corps acting Director Jody K. Olsen.
The program is constantly updated to reflect the concerns of callers, according to Khan.
"We can track how often a theme, such as condoms, HIV, or pregnancy is brought up and this data can be assembled into reports that can be used to create other programs," he said.
"We've managed to secure the support of MTC, Namibia's largest mobile phone provider, who will be providing us a no-cost service," Kahn added.
Since the Peace Corps press release on Khan's and Moore's HER project went out last week, the pair have been inundated with requests from other organizations looking to start similar setups.
"Its all been kind of surprising to me, people have been really excited about the idea," said Khan via email. "In June alone we had 325 users SMS the line with questions. Those conversations were made up of 2,382 text messages. And that was with minimal advertising."
As expected, Namibia youth are more apt to use text messaging, opening up a large demographic to the health care service.
Khan, who is nearing the completion of his 27-month Peace Corps commitment, was inspired to join by his mother, Joy Gallagher of Ahwatukee.
She served her Peace Corps stint in Kenya in the 1970s following her graduation from the University of Massachusetts. Her floriculture degree was put to use working with the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture.
Rashid's Kenyan-born father Javed Khan is also an Ahwatukee resident as are his stepfather Art Deyo and stepmother Rebecca Khan .
While admitting Peace Corps IT positions go quickly, Khan encourages Information Technology professionals to consider volunteering.
"I can imagine with all the layoffs going around there's more than a few qualified IT professionals out there looking for a way to ride out the storm," he said.
