The October 2014 issue of the Gender & Mobile/Learning Newsletter is now available! You may access the newsletter on the web by clicking this link.

My co-editor Alex Tyers and I realized after its publication that this newsletter issue has a definite mobile health (mHealth) theme happening. Most of the stories feature mHealth interventions, including the launch of South Africa’s first national public mHealth service, called MomConnect.

MomConnect advertisement

My favorite spotlight article from the newsletter, however, is of course mobile learning-related. Lizzie’s Creations is a company developing educational apps for women and children in Africa, and its young female namesake has already created a partnership with MTN Nigeria to expand the reach of her work.

Why I like Lizzie’s product AfroTalez so much is because it teaches children African folktales in a bid to help preserve the rich history of the continent. Although the oral tradition has been strong in Africa for millenia, digital preservation of the peoples and cultures there is one way to document, maintain, and share stories so that they’re not lost when migration happens or people lose the spirit of the griots before them. I hope we’ll see more apps like this soon.

Check out this newsletter issue and let me know your thoughts!