COVID 19 has crippled global systems, including institutions of learning that have been affected by the national wide lockdowns. The President of Uganda, H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, in a statement on the 18th March 2020 presidential address, and in a series of others that would later follow, introduced measures that the country is currently implementing in order to have an edge against the virus.
So far, it would be safe to state that the measures in place are working considering the fact that as at the time of scripting this story, the country has only recorded 74 cases of COVID 19, 45 recoveries, and no deaths. However, as nations struggle to implement lockdowns, there has also come a thirst for technological advancements to help governments counter the spread of the virus.
‘Covid Guides’.
One such advancement, is a creation of UCU Law’s own, Christopher Amuchwa (Developer), a third – year student in Mukono campus offering Bachelor of Laws (He recently transferred from Kampala campus). Amuchwa has created a phone application (App), “Covid Guides” that can help the Ministry of Health (M.o.E) relay reliable information to Ugandans (who are constantly in need of official data in order to be able to filter the false information that is being shared via various social media platforms). The App can for example give you an update of the current cases that Uganda has as per the M.o.E official figures.
To explain how the application works and what it is exactly about, Amuchwa shares his perspective. The author of the story was also able to use the App to be able to share an experience that corroborates the Developer’s.
“The App basically has the contacts for the RDCs, the helpline for the ministry, the Red Cross contacts, the World Health Organization contact, connects to the KCCA market list, has police contacts of all districts, tips of safety, the symptoms of COVID” among other information including news updates.
It works like an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data a.k.a USSD, in that you can type a command in a textbox, and be prompted with the sought results. To demonstrate, USSD as on phones, enables one to dial codes like *131# and be prompted with an airtime balance screen, a similar technique adopted by Amuchwa in his App where you type the commands, press send, and receive instant feedback.
“I was looking at making it more like the USSD approach combined with a chat like user interface” Amuchwa explains how his innovation works.
When you launch the App, the first screen reveals two lines of sentences, with one prompting the user to type ‘help’ in order to view the programmed commands that are employable within the App. According to the Developer, the commands you type are not case sensitive in that you can either type them in small or capital letters and still receive anticipated results.
The other commands in the App include “helpline” which will call the M.o.E, “market” that provides you with the list of available online vendors that the Kampala Capital City Authority has in its database, “task force” to view the list of contacts in the task force, “police” to get contacts of police, “MOH”, “news” “updates”, “WHO”, “red cross”, “tips”, “symptoms”, “safety”, “update app” to update the app, or typing the name of a district to get the contacts of the district RDCs.
Interestingly, some of the information such as contacts data can be accessed without the end user having an internet connection.
Covid Guides can also help in fighting the spread of false information or commonly known as ‘fake news’ as the only available data about COVID19 on it, is from official government sources like the M.o.E with the help of the ‘updates’ command.
“You will … get direct information from the ministry … it connects to the page that has the accurate results from the ministry itself” he says, and in that accuracy, one is saved from the increasing volumes of fake news and propaganda that are being spread via social media about the virus.
Inspiration
He has also been able to multi task, study the law, and at the same time, learn App development and also develop the same on the side.
“Every time I am free, I think about that additional skill that I need to add” reminiscing about the future that he would have should he not have a job after graduation given that “there are so many lawyers out there”. He believes that to compete favorably, one must have an additional still. “…you may have your first class, but without an additional skill, you cannot actually get the potential” he adds.
He wonders what life would be like in 2021 after he will have graduated from law school.
“I cannot sit back … I do not have a law firm, no one knows me, where will I start from”, he intimates. “If I could actually start making apps … I would employ myself and not wait to be employed”.
He was also inspired by a friend who is in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus. He cites being challenged by a video where Bill Gates in 2015 was talking about how prepared the world is if we were ever to be affected by a pandemic of this magnitude. The philanthropist said that there were small things” like video games and apps that could be developed in preparation. He opted for the App in consideration of the African context, and Covid Guides was birthed.
The App can be downloaded off a Google Drive link https://bit.ly/covid-guideapp as it has not yet been uploaded to Google Play Store and neither is a version available for iOS.
“…the app is not yet in any app store or Play Store but it is in use through a link that is simply tapped and it is downloaded” he said in an interview. He has been sharing a Google Drive link to the intended users of the App as he has been facing many challenges uploading it to Google Play Store.
Hs is also working on an iOS version of the App.
