Malawi, Linux, & The Fight Against HIV
March 26th, 2007
Though Jon Saints now commutes to our Boulder, Colorado office, Vestal’s newest designer once spent his days under African skies in the small nation of Malawi, working on technological solutions to combat the continued spread of HIV. His tool: open-source faves Linux and the Opera browser.
In order to track patients and their treatments, a vast amount of information needs to be collected, sorted, and stored accurately – a tall task in the States, let alone the developing world. In Malawi, the NGO Baobab Health Partnership – with Jon’s help – adapted Linux to $100 touchscreen Internet appliances, then wrote a program for Opera to run in full-screen kiosk mode. The resulting terminal can easily manage the nation’s health data and is scalable wherever a web connection can be made.
Obviously, no amount of technology can replace medicine in fighting disease. But in working against any sort of global problem, be it AIDS or poverty or famine or whatever, there is a tremendous amount of organization necessary to ensure resources are delivered where and when they can do the most good. Simple systems – like the one Jon designed – can mean a world of difference to those in need.
Link to Baobab Health Partnership
Link to story on Linuxdevices.org
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