Grassroot Soccer, an NGO, uses the power
of Soccer to educate the communities to
stop the spread of HIV.
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can easily ensure that the correct SMSs are sent to the correct participants at the right time
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can send personalized SMSs to boys and girls directly to their cell phones
Grassroot Soccer (GRS) is an international public health NGO headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa that uses the power of soccer to educate, inspire, and mobilize communities to stop the spread of HIV.
Problem
GRS needed a way to send SMS to its participants – secondary school students in South African townships – in a quick, easy, reliable manner.
Grassroot Soccer needed to find out:
- Customized Salesforce database to house its program and data, including contact information of its participants.
- An application to send SMS that could integrate with this existing platform.
- Email was not a very effective option because the internet is not easily accessible to everybody, anytime.
Solution
Little Kids Rock knew SMS would be a strong way to connect with their audience in complement to email communication. Within a matter of days, Little Kids Rock started creating tailored online content to support music educators working in a new environment, promoting the material, & providing their constituents the option to sign up for SMS reminders. Each time a new YouTube video or piece of content was released, those who had signed up received an SMS alert that included a link directly to the content.
Little Kids Rock focused on three main use cases for SMS:
Collecting opt-ins from new and existing community members who were interested in new content
Sending out mass SMS alerts for real-time releases
Using opt-ins for other announcements & to strengthen their contact list
Little Kids Rock reaches over
1 million K-12 students across 44 states nationwide
Little Kids Rock saw increased viewership in their digital resources that were distributed and shared via SMS messages.
The Role of SMS in the Future of Education
The landscape of education is changing with an upcoming school year that is unlike any that has ever been experienced. Many organizations are finding ways to cater to their constituents through delivery of digital content or a blend of in-person and remote resources.
Little Kids Rock plans to expand their SMS use by complementing business operations with the service. The organization is creating a SMS hotline—in addition to their phone hotline for teachers —to answer questions and troubleshoot issues the teachers they serve may be experiencing.
Since texting often prompts a faster & more consistent response than phone calls, there is a natural shift in exploring SMS as a communication tool.
To learn more about Little Kids Rock, visit www.littlekidsrock.org
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Solution
GRS used SMS Magic to send messages to participants of its HIV-prevention program in South Africa.
SMS Magic seamlessly integrated with GRS’ existing platform. Now they can easily ensure that the correct SMS get sent to the correct participants at the right time, and can even send personalized messages to boys and girls. Participants of the GRS Generation Skillz Intervention will receive biweekly SMS for an entire year. The initial results have been very encouraging, as the feedback from the participants has been overwhelmingly positive.
With research partners WRHI and LSHTM, GRS is running a three-year Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) to evaluate the effectiveness of its Generation Skillz Intervention on grade 9 participants’ HIV-related knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Half of the study’s participants will receive SMS via SMS Magic, to assess the impact of the messages on health outcomes.
Here is how GRS used SMS-Magic messaging platform to reach people:
- To ensure that the right message is sent to the right recipients at the right time
- Messaging is a popular medium among the youth and receiving HIV-related information directly to their mobile phones gave them a personal touch and made a difference in the graduates’ sustained HIV knowledge, behavior, and attitudes
- Continue the conversation even after they have graduated from the GRS program, sharing the knowledge that they have gained with their friends and family
- Study’s participants will receive SMS to assess the impact of the messages sent on health outcomes
We have been using the system for
about a week now and we are ecstatic about the results. SMS-Magic is assisting us to engage parties that were previously difficult to reach, and it is doing so in an affordable manner.
– Team Grassroot Soccer
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