During a pandemic in Pakistan, how do you reach a refugee family who has fled Afghanistan only to be met with a new, invisible, enemy on the other side of the border? Or a mother living in Chagai district where 9 out of 10 people live below the poverty line, who, even before this outbreak, found every day a struggle? Or the millions of other at-risk people who need information to protect themselves and their families during this critical time. Organizations need to reach highly vulnerable groups with targeted outreach at scale and on short timelines (and limited budgets) to raise awareness about critical health and livelihood issues related to COVID-19.
Viamo reaches vulnerable groups by sending out targeted messages based on location and demographic user data (gender, age, devices, preferred language etc.). To do this, we partner with major telephone companies and design campaigns for a multi-channel approach, understanding when and how to use automated voice calls, text, social media, and chatbots.
In the past few weeks, we partnered with several organizations to run three different targeted mass messaging (TMM) campaigns in Pakistan, all with the same goal of reaching specific populations at scale. UNICEF wanted to reach people across 60 districts in Pakistan with information about the COVID-19 outbreak and spread. The International Rescue Committee wanted to ensure COVID-19 awareness outreach to high-risk, extremely low-income communities across seven districts. Verso Consulting, on behalf of the Asia Foundation, wanted to conduct outreach for at-risk refugee communities in three districts across Pakistan’s highly porous border with Afghanistan. Each partnered with us to ensure they could simultaneously target their messages to the appropriate vulnerable group and at the same time reach millions.
We conducted these TMM campaigns using a multi-channel approach with proven call-back strategies to ensure that we reached as many people as possible. In total, we reached 10.75 million people with over 19 million key messages through these campaigns within the past month. This success shows the ability and potential of mobile phone campaigns to raise awareness about critical issues, such as COVID-19, for millions of people in targeted regions and demographic groups. Millions of vulnerable people in Pakistan are now better equipped with the information they need to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.
Want to explore mobile engagement options for your COVID-19 response projects? Get in touch with us and find out how we can expand your reach and impact!
The 3-2-1 Service
Viamo’s flagship product, the 3-2-1 Service, is a free information service available in 18 countries globally. Callers can access pre-recorded audio messages in local languages for free.
To date, over 5.5 million people have accessed more than 15.4 million key pieces of information through our 3-2-1 Service:
Want to hear for yourself? Call +1-650-866-1481 to listen to COVID-19 messages from our Service in Uganda, where English is one of the six available languages.
Viamo’s three pillars of support to our partners for responding to COVID-19 quickly, cost-effectively, and at scale:
Pillar 1: Community Awareness through the 3-2-1 Service, Hotlines and Targeted Mass Messaging (TMM).
Pillar 2: Health System Strengthening through Remote Training, Job Aids, Surveys.
Pillar 3: Child Protection and Learning Support through Remote Learning, Edutainment, and more.
Click Here to Read More About Viamo’s COVID-19 Response.
