In a sidebar in this year’s annual letter from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates encourages readers to donate their used mobile phones to IntraHealth International through the Hope Phones campaign.

By recycling used phones, IntraHealth earns funds that we then use to equip frontline health workers with mobile phones and other technology.

More and more health workers are using mobile phones in remote communities and urban areas to transmit and receive up-to-the-minute information, alert health officials to emergencies and outbreaks, communicate with their supervisors, make referrals, and consult clinical protocols. 

"We are very grateful to the Gates Foundation for identifying the Hope Phones initiative as an example of how we can all contribute to closing the digital divide and create opportunities for greater access to health care for vulnerable communities," says Pape Gaye, IntraHealth president and CEO.

IntraHealth is closely monitoring the initiative, tracking its success over time in order to ensure that we are responding to the changing needs of health workers.

"Skeptics point out that we have a hard time delivering new tools to the people who need them,” Gates writes. “This is where the innovation of using measurement is making a big difference.”

IntraHealth International partners with Medic Mobile and Hope Phones to turn old phones into positive change.