Microsoft Co-founder and Billionaire, Paul G Allen has announced around 10,000 smartphones would be made available for combating Ebola virus in West Africa. The statement was released by the billionaire’s foundation, the Paul G. Allen Family foundation stating that specially programmed smartphones would be provided in order to help volunteers and health workers gather enough data to complement the efforts of relief agencies in the affected regions.
A number of the smartphones were purchased by the foundation while some others where donated by companies. The data collated would be used to help government and private relief organisations access the necessary needs and deploy more effective right measures to help the affected regions, mostly Western Africa.
As also ongoing plans to combat Ebola, he also announced the foundation has released a grant to communication specialist, NetHope. NetHope is a group of International consortium of NGOs Concerned with improving emergency response organizations’ IT communications. The Paul G. Allen Family foundation donation to NetHope will help improve communication and connectivity in 45 locations as well as the deployment of around 10 satellite communication. The grant is also expected to fund a number of short-term private sector projects to extend mobile capacity, as well as helping mobile operators widen their existing networks.
In September, the billionaire pledged around $USD 9 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for combating the deadly virus; the following month he upped the donation to around $USD 100 million. Paul G. Allen joins the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Samsung and LG amongst others which have pledged donations or smartphones for combating the deadly Ebola virus.
Via FoxNews
