[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English,
[00:02.47]this is the Technology Report.
[00:05.60]A team of Americans and Kenyans
[00:08.32]has developed an Internet router
[00:10.99]made specially for Africa.
[00:13.67]They say it keeps the Internet available
[00:16.65]even in areas with undependable Internet service.
[00:21.23]The device is called Brck [pronounced Brick],
[00:24.47]it can plug into an electric source,
[00:27.00]but it is also battery powered.
[00:29.71]Al Banda is an Internet blogger in Cameroon.
[00:33.93]He saw the device for the first time  last week 
[00:37.51]at an Information Technology Conference 
[00:40.67]in Berlin, Germany.
[00:42.64]Mr. Banda says Brck could solve a problem he has experienced.
[00:48.54]"In Cameroon, in my community,
[00:52.52]we constantly have power outages,
[00:54.23]and you won't get access to the Internet.
[00:55.63]We constantly have the ISPs
[00:57.04]for any random reason just not providing
[00:59.76]the service they claim they're providing us,
[01:02.05]so a solution like that
[01:03.81]is an African answer to an African problem."
[01:06.48]The Kenya-based nonprofit technology company
[01:09.92]Ushahidi developed Brck after raising money
[01:14.39]through the crouse sourcing website Kickstarter.
[01:17.86]Ushahidi official Erik Hersman says
[01:21.45]the router is able to move among Internet networks.
[01:26.49]"If you have an Internet connection problem,
[01:28.00]it will "fail over" to the sim card,
[01:29.32]so you'll have 3G connectivity,
[01:30.55]which means that you can completely unplug it
[01:32.66]and take it with you wherever you want to go,
[01:34.99]and have connectivity along the way."
[01:37.15]Mr. Hersman says Brck will go into production
[01:40.27]as soon as the company raises $125,000.
[01:45.42]Ushahidi has collected about half that so far.
[01:48.94]The company plans to make up to 1,500 devices at first,
[01:54.63]mainly for Africa and India.
[01:57.21]Mr. Hersman expects each device to sell for about $100.
[02:02.79]James Clardy is a technology developer from Texas.
[02:07.77]He has already bought a Brck
[02:09.87]and says he is exploring the use of these technologies
[02:13.49]for building telehealth and telemedicine.
[02:17.14]In a seperate story, A creative program combining wireless phones,
[02:22.87]pregnant women and health advice is been launched in South Africa,
[02:28.51]the program called Mama sends maternal advice
[02:32.67]to expectant and new mothers through text messages.
[02:36.81]Mama is the  Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action,
[02:41.39]it is based on the idea that wireless phones
[02:45.27]are the most dependable way to reach people.
[02:48.29]Right now, three of every four people in the world use cellphones.
[02:53.87]Mama sends up to three messages a week.
[02:57.25]For example, one such message is about
[03:01.28]caring for a new-born baby's umbilical cord.
[03:05.05]It explains how infection of the cord can make a baby sick,
[03:09.69]then it tells how to keep the cord clean and infection free.
[03:15.26]About 800 women die everyday from pregnancy related problems,
[03:20.77]and infant death rates are in the millions.
[03:23.93]Mama is a partnership between the American government
[03:28.00]and private companies.
[03:29.47]The program was first established in Bangladesh
[03:33.50]and soon to arrive in India.
[03:36.06]And that's the Technology Report.
[03:39.14]Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports
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[03:53.43]at VOA learning English.
[03:56.30]I'm Milagros Ardin.