Veye Kò w

Frantz Pierre-Louis is the CEO of Cybermatik Group and PMI Certified Project Manager with a Master Certificate from Villanova University. Expert in technology project management for more than 11 years, he has helped to set up several technological solutions contributing to the development of the IT ecosystem. It offers its services through its companies both to the private sector and to public administrations. Its achievements are characterized above all by their practical functionality, their simplicity and the ease of integration with other systems. During the past 13 years, he has contributed to developing systems for USAID / MSH, FED (Women In Democracy), MED / ONEV, MCI (Ministry of Trade and Industry), OMRH, BHDA (Haitian Copyright Office) ), and others.

His contribution to his community implies working with young adolescents to help them becoming better leaders by working together. He is the coordinator of EDEYO, a local non-profit organization.

Most of the Haitian population live in rural zones and are not touched 

by the awareness campaign about the pandemic and the barrier actions.
There are no Internet coverage either that could help sharing the
information. Not to mention misinformation about the effects and the
cause of the Covid-19. The government needed another easy-to-use tool
that can reach those people not only to inform them but also to
facilitate data sharing about their health situation in case they have
related symptoms.

VEYE KÒ W consists of an intelligent system of pre-screening and management of suspected cases of Covid-19 by SMS at the national level. It also use youth-community awareness message to educate the population. Robust, flexible, and reliable, this system can also be used for education and prevention of risks and disasters.

The project will help in protecting the population and prevent the propagation of the pandemic. 

Most of the Haitian people live in rural zones where there are no Internet coverage and no electricity at all. Because they are difficult to reach by the traditional channels , TV and Radios, those people are the most fragile and exposed to the covid-19. However, according to the telecom regulator (CONATEL) among the 5.5M connected cellphones int the country, a vast majority use some USSD and SMS services. That's why it is easier and cheaper to reach and educate them via SMS. Moreover, with a population living with less than $2 per day it is difficult to ask them to stay at home in quarantine where there is no electricity for the radio or TV.

That's a system that can be useful everywhere in the world where there are little or no Internet coverage but telecom services and people have at least a basic cellphone.

From a single SMS sent to a dedicated four-digit number or a GSM modem, it enables the possible screening process to be started and the appropriate care to be taken, as well as follow-up by a reverse call center. It also enable the prevention campaign to facilitate its success by providing a channel easy-to-use and accessible.

VEYE KÒ W is more than a software to collect data. It’s a project that serves the population and creates opportunities for young people to stay at home while working and volunteering in their community.  And this is the innovative part of the project that drives two government ministries to adopt the system.

The MICT (Ministry of Interior and Territorial Collectivities) via her direction DCP (Civil Protection) use their youth-based structure in our reverse call center. They also serve to promote the awareness message about Covid-19. The MSPP (Health Ministry) collects data from our pre-screening process to take in charge those who present the symptoms and applies her protocol.

In a near future, after covid, MSPP plan to use the system to gather more information about other diseases like (HIV, Malaria, Tuberculosis and Diabetes). And MICT envisions a larger use for disaster risk reduction.

The main beneficiary is the Haitian population living day-to-day and 

unable to follow the rules about social distancing and staying at home.
Most of them living in rural zone have no access to TV nor Internet.
They are not aware of the danger and the challenges of Covid-19. The
other beneficiary is the government that will use the data provided by
Veye Kò w to take better decision.

We value the engagement of the young leaders in the communities who collaborate with us to serve agent for spreading the awareness message but also to inform us about the behavior changes in the community.

To cope with this pandemic, it is imperative that the population is well informed of the measures to be taken to protect themselves and prevent the spread of the disease. Unfortunately, people in rural areas who do not have access to technology are often overlooked and do not participate in decision-making that affects them.

Veye Kò w not only facilitates the dissemination of prevention messages, but also enables young leaders to serve their communities while being themselves aware of the dangers of not following the instructions of the authorities.

Veye Kò w is the result of a mastermind group to seize the opportunities offered by health crisis around the world in the country. It was evident that something there was something to do to help and manifest solidarity. Many solutions were presented to inform the population. It was all about statistics of number of cases from many countries. And giving advice on how to wash hands, social distancing, etc. 

As we said, because of the long gap between the people living in urban and rural zones, those messages and information didn't reach them as it should be. That's the reason why many of them did not believe the disease really exists even after the official announced the first two cases.

We, then, decide to find an easy way to support the message and help those people. Our conclusion : "Reach them via their cellphone and use a community approach to spread the awareness message".

It is always difficult to learn that a loved one or friend has died from an illness. In fact, aside from reports from other countries of the many cases of covid-19 and the hundreds of thousands of deaths, many of us have lost a friend or loved one. However, in these developed countries there is infrastructure and the standard of living is higher.

In our country, on the other hand, and in many others with the same characteristics, people do not have easy access to information and hygienic measures such as hand washing are not always respected. Having the possibility of helping these populations to be more responsible in the face of the disease and avoiding its spread is a duty for every conscious and responsible citizen. We believe our system will affect more people and their attitudes and behaviors will change favorably.

We are a group of experienced professionals, respectively specialists in strategic communication, IT and ICT, project management and organizational development who work tirelessly for the well-being of the community. We have been helping to enhance the results and the image of various institutions and projects, at the same time as we develop technological solutions that have helped many organizations.

Our staff comes from several projects with institutions in both the public and private sectors as well as NGOs and international organizations such as the World Bank, the European Union, USAID, PNUD, and PADF.

This project is our citizen contribution to facilitate the productive national appropriation essential to the success of the fight against covid-19 in Haiti. Furthermore, three of us, on the management committee, host weekly programs on communication, technology and leadership on Radio. This gives us a favorable audience and a certain notoriety in our community. 

Feeling challenged by the irresponsible high-risk behavior that results from the generalized denial of the existence of covid-19 in Haiti, we designed and tested this technological solution already deployed.

On February 17th 2020, one month before the President of Haiti officially announced we had 2 confirmed covid-19 cases, we decided to develop a system to educate and inform the population about the coronavirus and how to prevent his propagation. Unfortunately, on his speech, the President mention that he mandated a government agency to work on a project with the same objectives. Most of our team felt discouraged for all the efforts they have committed to the project. And we spent a week lamenting on it. Then, our communication manager informed us that the system that should be developed by the agency never started. By this time, we decide to keep our project alive and add more value to it. That's when we have come with the module to do a pre-screening test via SMS, backed by a reverse call center and finally reported the suspected cases to the government in other to take care of them. We learned two great lessons, it pays when you never give up and you always search a way to add more value for people.

I am the Executive Manager of Cybermatik Group for 15 years. I was the IT consultant in charge for the implementation of Intellectual Property database for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in 2009. And also the project Manager for the Haitian Office of Copy-Right working with a team of 5 to develop the information system in 2011. Not to mention being the coordinator in a benevolent project to help young adolescents in our neighborhood called Edeyo.

Our staff comes from several projects with institutions in both the public and private sectors as well as NGOs and international organizations such as the World Bank, the European Union, USAID, CECI, PNUD, and PADF.

Veye Kò w:

1- Encourage symptomatic people to get pre-tested via SMS and the whole population to adopt responsible behavior

 2- Involve young people in their community as a reverse call center.

 3- Satisfy the information needs of the public and state authorities.

 4- Create a solid lever of action in communities to promote the success of targeted actions.

It's not only a software but a strong communication strategy backed up by a robust application.

A population that most often feels abandoned and forgotten by the authorities tends to neglect their recommendations. This oversight is sometimes characterized by an absence of basic services in their localities. In fact, the prevention messages conveyed and the channels used by the authorities did not take into account the situation of these people who do not have access to these services. Covid-19 appeared at a time when many villagers demanded their participation in decisions concerning them.

By choosing the community approach to get the message across and using SMS to reach as many people as possible, Veye Kò w facilitates access to information and allows interaction between the authorities and distant populations.

According to Sclicktext, 65% of people worldwide send and receive SMS. This stats is corroborated by the regulator in Haiti reporting that 3.5M uses SMS services. Moreover, researchers predict 6 billion people will send and receive SMS text messages by 2025 and 3 out of 10 consumers would give up phone calls to use messaging (TextMagic).

The main beneficiary is the Haitian population living day-to-day and  unable to follow the rules about social distancing and staying at home.  Most of them living in rural zone have no access to TV nor Internet.  They are not aware of the danger and the challenges of Covid-19. And they are estimated about 6M living in rural zones. We expect to reach 2.5M with our awareness message in the first year in collaboration with the Telecom Operators. In long term, as we intend to adapt our system to handle more diseases and disasters, we projected to reach at least 5M

As we expected to reach more people and educate them about the barriers and how to prevent the propagation of the pandemic, we plan to use our system for other diseases after covid-19. In long term, the Ministry of Health is interested to use our system to monitor people living with disease like Diabetes, Malaria, HIV, Tuberculosis. And the Ministry of Interior thinks it would be useful to if we can adapt to handle risks and disasters to reach the population in case of hurricane via SMS.

To date, the main obstacle to the expansion of the project is financial. The system being entirely designed and tested, it remains its implementation. Technically, there are not yet any constraints that could hinder the implementation of the project.
However, given future uses and the adaptations that will follow, we will have to rely on external solutions and resources. We will certainly need external expertise to standardize our system in case it is obvious that it can be used in other countries facing the same problems.
Pointing out also that the community approach that we privilege is practical for the moment because the young people and the populations feel more pushed to a collective solidarity for the good of their communities. Although these young people receive compensation for their commitment, we will have to find another strategy to keep the added value of our reverse call center.

Although we have found support from certain organizations with regard to Internet services, presentations in the media and the donation of certain materials, we will not be able to fully rely on them to extend the project and reach the maximum number of people.

Currently we are looking for funds to finance the expansion of the project. The system is functional and the modules for risks and disasters are under development.
Regarding the external expertise for the standardization of our system we will go to local partners and we will welcome the directives of Solve experts.
Finally, since the two local ministries wish to use the system after covid-19, we have already started to work on a financing plan for the next 4 years.

Several organizations have expressed interest and sincere support for the project. Among others we can cite:
- Ayitek for the creation of the website
- Xpertik for the development of VK Bot Messenger
- Vision 2000 for press interventions
- Globotech for donating a computer
- Access Haiti for Internet connection
- PADF which helps us to find the funds
- MSPP who contributed to the writing of the messages
- MICT which put its youth structure at the service of our reverse call center.

As an Hybrid firm we provide service for the government and the private sector, as well as for NGO. We develop IT solutions on demand and sometimes, like in the case of Veye Kò w, we propose projects around a solution we built to the government or NGOs.

Like for Covid, we develop a solution for the Ministry of Health and the government approved it. And this solution will be useful, in the future, to monitor other diseases.

We mainly work with the government. We are a B2G firm. Most of the time we work with them on technology needs and together we work to raise money to fund the projects or the government pay for the solutions when possible.

For this project, Veye Kò w, we have received donations and support from private sectors.

- A computer from Globotech

- Internet connection from Access Haiti

- Media support from Vision 2000

- Website from Ayitek

- VK Bot Messenger from Xpertik

- etc

The 2M dollars we are looking for is to scale our project to handle the covid-19 pre-screening to the whole country and also to adapt our solution for the upcoming hurricanes. As two Ministries expect to use our solution to monitor other diseases after covid and manage risks reduction in case of disaster, we we need more resources and funds.

To handle the project Veye Kò w for a minimum coverage to finish the covid-19 period and adapt for the Risks and Disasters, our expenses go around 2M. 

As we, the government and Cybermatik, are raising funds to finance the project for one year, the Elevate Prize can be greatly useful and welcomed to finance one or more of the categories below. We have divide our budget in four main areas.

- System deployment & Reverse Call center : 1M

- Staff Remuneration: 300K

- PR and Communication : 450K

- Operations Management : 250K

As our staff has a long collaboration with many NGOs we can work any of the organizations below:

- USAID

- IDB

- Worl Bank

- UNDP

- PADF