University kicks off campaign to collect mobile phones to help fund maternal health programs in Congo, Nepal

On Tuesday at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Chelsea Clinton, board member of the William J. Clinton Foundation, and Christy Turlington Burns, founder of Every Mother Counts, helped launch the GW + Phones = Hope campaign, which is "working with the national nonprofit Hope Phones to collect phones to benefit maternal health programs in Democratic Republic of Congo and Nepal," the "GW Hatchet" blog reports (Ferris, 10/18).

Hope Phones will recycle the phones and use the proceeds to help fund mobile health technology in the countries, VOA News notes. Tierney O'Dea, campaign manager for Hope Phones, said, "We use those funds to buy new appropriate phones for the field that has our software on them and make them into medical communications devices," according to VOA. The GW campaign aims to collect 20,000 phones from students, faculty and community members, the news service notes (Diallo, 10/19).