Press Release: Frontline SMS releases new version of the text messaging platform

kiwanja.net launches its next-generation text messaging platform for the
grassroots non-profit (NGO) community.   FrontlineSMS continues to unlock the potential of mobile technology for non-profits working for positive social and environmental change throughout the developing world. 

kiwanja.net's work is innovatively and uniquely centred around three complementary areas:

   Inform
   Firstly, providing mobile-related information to those who need it most

   Advise
   Secondly, once they have it, helping them make sense of it

   Act
Finally, once they understand it, providing the tools to help them act on it

 The explosive entry of mobile technology in the developing world has created a raft of opportunities for the non-profit sector.  Text messaging has proved itself to be particularly versatile in helping remind patients to take their medicine, providing market prices to farmers and fishermen, distributing health information, permitting the reporting of human rights abuses and promoting increased citizen participation in government.

While the list may be long, not everyone has been able to reap the benefits.
While group messaging applications do exist, the majority remain web-based and are either too costly or too technical or rely on internet connectivity to work, something which continues to be a challenge for many grassroots non-profits working in remote areas in the developing world. 

FrontlineSMS gets around this by using the mobile phone network to send and receive messages through a fully-featured easy-to-use computer-based application and an attached mobile phone or modem.  The software works in any country which uses the GSM standard, and is provided free to NGOs who can easily attach their own phone and insert a local SIM card to get their messaging hub up and running.