URIDU is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that empowers rural women in developing and emerging countries. More than 200 million people were affected by natural disasters or displaced by conflict and violence in 2014. 50 per cent of refugees are women and girls. When crises strike, gender inequalities worsen. Gender-based violence increases, women are excluded from life-saving services and their limited mobility leads to physical insecurity. Access to healthcare is also limited, increasing mortality and malnutrition rates, particularly for mothers and infants. As a result, 60 per cent of preventable maternal deaths take place in settings of conflict, displacement and natural disasters. Mobile technology is revolutionizing the world by providing access to critical health knowledge and education. Yet marginalized populations often cannot use technology to its full potential, due to a lack of ownership, access and ability. Women are facing particular challenges to benefit from information technologies. There is a strong case for a simple, accessible and cheap technology that can provide free audiovisual content to marginalized populations. We combined the best of both worlds: the ease of use of radio with the versatility of smartphones. Our approach is based on 3 key elements: structured and localized audiovisual content a mobile web application acting as an intuitive user interface a dedicated Wi-Fi hotspot which serves the web app.

https://www.uridu.org

• Africa
• Asia and Pacific

• Women
• Migrants
• Refugees and internally displaced people
• Remote and rural communities

About 10.000 women have access to our "hardware" (solar-powered MP3 players) and 2.000 women per day are accessing our contents online. We are constantly receiving feedback from about the health sensitization process such as this one from Goma, DR Congo: "We notice a change from the medical point of view, the reduction of cases of diarrheal diseases, the reduction ofcases of induced abortions and also the reduction of cases of typhoid fever." We would expect 50.000 beneficiaries in 12 months and a million in 3 years. The 50.000 would be part of the current pilot projects and the million the result of partnering with major local NGOs in key markets. Our target group will be illiterate rural women and we expect measurable results regarding public health, economical empowerment and gender equality. We are experiencing those changes already on a small scale, and we are confident that our current results will be multiplicand during the scaling process.

By providing vital information to rural areas with smart ideas to educate rural women in developing countries.