Mobile phones 'useful in developing world'

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Mobile phones have been praised for the positive impact they have had in developing countries.

UK residents have become used to the almost ubiquitous mobile phone technology such as text messages, multimedia messages and cheap international calls , but in the developing world the devices have helped NGOs provide essential services.

A survey titled Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in Mobile Use by NGOs reveals that using handsets has given humanitarian organisations incredible advantages.

It revealed that 86 per cent of NGOs use mobile phones in their work and 31 per cent said their work would be difficult to carry out without the technology.

Oxfam uses a text-messaging service to allow Kenyan residents to report violent incidents.

Katrin Verclas, one of the reports authors said that mobile phones had already been largely accepted.

She said: "This is not a device that is foreign, unlike a computer for a lot of people. They already understand the benefit. They've already swallowed that fact, gotten past the barrier. So what's left to do is sell the benefit for a particular mission."

However the report concluded that the financial numbers needed to be studied more closely to determine if the benefits outweighed the costs.

Britons can also use their old phones to help overseas projects by donating them.

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