GAMBANANYE / TALK TO ME APP

Accuracy of medical analysis is vital to the treatment process of patients. Many patients (1000) who come for treatment at health center do not know the English language whereas majority of medical workers can only comfortably communicate using the English language. A lot of time is spent by medical workers struggling to communicate to patients and understanding what patients are communicating to them. This in turn leads to wrong interpretation of patient’s information which they have expressed and   also undermines patient’s privacy , confidentiality when the care provider has to seek the assistance of a third party/the interpreter, which compromise the treatment process if wrong medical analysis and other decision are made due to language barrier.

Millions of people have been affected  due to language barrier  because of misinterpretation  of languages.

Improving health services delivery and utilization through addressing language barrier in Ankole region in Uganda and also ease healthcare providers and patients’ interactions with the use of a communication App called Gamba Nanye (Talk to me)APP.

Talk to Me Application,   is a free offline translation app developed by EPHWOR,

It   works without internet to translate voice and text speech (voice to voice, text to voice and vice versa in real time between women and service providers with a provision of English and Ankole region local language(runyankole).  most women who  seeks  family planning  solutions in ankole region  are not conversant with the English language that is the official language of Uganda  and practiced by most professionals.

The technology that is being done through developing a new model and giving it a thousand words using Tensa flow lite which is written in python and supported by android, in way that, it has libraries to interpret Tensa flow codes and those libraries are packaged in NDK (Native development kit), so SDK (Software Development Kit) communicates with NDK to interpret those words.

Young women and Adolescent girls , patients and health workers, parents and relatives of adolescents, security agencies, and all duty bearers.

 The solution will impact the lives of young girls and women through accessing  family planning services and interact with health workers as they are accessing services through using Talk to me app and be able to report cases to police station.

 And also Deaf Adolescent girls and young women would access family planning services by using text to text version of the app

The solution will address their need through translating the languages and   Improving their health services delivery and utilization

We engage them through downloading the APP on play store with upgrades and also launch the app to health facilities in the region

EPHWOR works closely with other agencies, authorities and civil society organizations to achieve its mission. These include; health facilities, security agencies, human rights bodies, legal services, religious leaders, policy makers; politicians at both local and national levels.

www.ephwor.org. 

We are well positioned and right people  to deliver this solution in way that we developed a new model to help us in translating the local language and we uploaded it on play store to be accessed by everyone.   we also launched it on September 26th, 2020, during the commemoration of the world contraception day where EPHWOR team demonstrated the health workers, police and other stakeholders at Ruhoko HC IV in Ibanda District how it operates, such that they could become familiar with it. Talk to me App has so far been piloted on 50 users (patients and health workers) at one hospital called Ruhoko HC IV in Ibanda district in southwestern in Uganda.

https://www.exposeduganda.com/ugandan-it-experts-develop-talk-to-me-app-to-bridge-family-planning-communication-gaps-between-women-and-service-providers/

 We are facing the financial challenge that would help in implementation and upgrading the application and We believe solve can help us  to overcome this challenge  because this solution will impact the lives of young girls and women through accessing  family planning services and interact with health workers as they are accessing services through using Talk to me app and be able to report cases to police station. And also Deaf Adolescent girls and young women would access family planning services by using text to text version of the app

  our solution is  innovative  because we developed a new modal and gave it a thousand words for application that translate local language  with in ankole region in Uganda  that is Runyankole- English and vice versa , speech to speech , speech to text  and vice versa   compare to other related solutions ,

 and this app works without internet to translate voice and text speech (voice to voice, text to voice and vice versa in real time between women and service providers with a provision of English and Ankole region local language(runyankole).

   We expect to change the market because most women who  seeks  family planning  solutions in ankole region  are not conversant with the English language that is the official language of Uganda  and practiced by most professionals. And this solution will be able to impact our beneficiaries-

To improve the health seeking behaviors of the locals by eliminating the language barrier challenge using a translation app.

 To reduce, and /or eliminate violation of patients’ ‘rights to confidentiality and privacy caused by interpreters in patient-doctor interactions.

 Our impact goals  for the next years  is  to make Fully operationalizing Gamba Nanye App in all health centers at the parish, sub-county and district levels in the 10 districts in southwestern Uganda by (state the time lines) e.g. by sept 2022.

2. Reducing/eliminating language barrier in provider-patient consultations at health centers in southwestern Uganda by sept 2022.

3. Accelerating SRHR services utilization by reaching all the youths in southwestern Uganda with the APP by sept 2022.

Conducting a research study to assess users’ views and satisfaction with the App by sept 2022

 EPHWOR has future plans to upgrade the App so that all local languages in Uganda can be input, and also to scale up the App across the entire country with a target of reaching 25 million people by 2025.

We are measuring the progress  through visiting the local hospitals and police stations  with  in the  ankole region of Uganda on  what/which  challenges and benefits they have  encountered and how they are using it to break language barrier.

Also getting feedback from our beneficiaries, the changes  and implementations they want us to make  and to improve the services 

Activity

Indicator

Time line

Person(s) responsible

Testing & training

Number of trainings conducted

Now-Oct 2023

Patience Birungi and team

Promotion & marketing

Number of people/users reached

Ongoing

Gastone Mwiine supported by team

Upgrading the App

Gamba Nanye App fully upgraded for other local languages

APril 2022-June 2022

Gastone Mwiine

Research

Number and quality of research conducted

July -sept 2022

Sharon Lanyero & Patience Birungi

Monitoring

Number of M&E meetings conducted and reports compiled

Continuous/ongoing

Sharon Lanyero

Southwestern Uganda is home to 10 districts that make up the Ankole region. Banyankole speaking people are the main tribal group and the most populous in this region. However, in the recent past decade, other tribal groups have increased in the area due to employment demands, and also immigrants from other regions, and refugees from neighboring countries mainly Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Burundi.

Of public health importance is that many patients who present for healthcare at health facilities in the region hardly know English. Yet, many health workers are not natives of the region and use English language while interacting with patients. Ultimately, this creates a communication barrier. The doctor-patient interaction can be daunting, including causing under exploration, under or over estimation of patient’s issues due to wrong, inappropriate or inadequate interpretation of information, hence compromising the provider’s ability to make thorough assessment, informed decisions and appropriate plan management/treatment. It also undermines patient’s/client’s privacy and confidentiality when the care provider has to seek the assistance of a third party/the interpreter. This can negatively impact police,  healthcare utilization especially in sensitive provider-patient interactions like in sexual and reproductive health services for adolescents, and other special vulnerable groups like the deaf.

Our core technology  is artificial intelligent,

We  developed a new model and gave it a thousand words using Tensa flow lite which is written in python and supported by android, in way that, it has libraries to interpret Tensa flow codes and those libraries are packaged in NDK (Native development kit), so SDK (Software Development Kit) communicates with NDK to interpret those words.

The App targets adolescent girls and young women , patients and health workers, parents and relatives of adolescents, security agencies, and all duty bearers who are not able to read and write  and also to speak the local language which  is Runyankole