The small, dusty village of Mayange lies 20 kilometers from Rwanda's capital, Kigali. Its health centre has fewer than 40 beds but serves an estimated 35,000 people. The Mayange centre could well be like thousands of other health facilities across the continent struggling to meet patients' needs with very few resources and staff.

But thanks to an innovative partnership involving the government, the Millennium Villages Project and Ericsson cell phone software and phones donated by the Rwandan subsidiary of Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN), a South African firm, health workers can call up the medical records of pregnant women from an online database and then, by cell phone, tell care-givers what to do during an emergency. Each donated phone includes a maternal and child-care training manual, with images and audio directions that can be sent to mothers and families.

The project is "going to have a very big impact," said Dr. Joseph Ryarasa. "To reduce maternal and child mortality, you need to educate mothers and health workers. Now we can send them educative messages on their phones or inform them about inoculations."

With funding from the Rwandan government and support from the Earth Institute of Columbia University in New York, the Mayange health centre has a solar charger, provided by Ericsson, to power 30 phones. It also has a computer database, accessible by mobile phone, with medical records of families in the village, making it easy for health workers to monitor health patterns.

Ericsson Chief Executive Officer Carl-Henric Svanberg says that replicating the project elsewhere in Africa would be easy and inexpensive. "Different places will want to apply the software to different things - health care, agriculture or to check the prices in the fish market," he told Africa Renewal. "Customizing the software is not rocket science. African software engineers can do it easily." As a start, the Earth Institute and Ericsson intend to extend the project to 10 other villages in Africa.

This is another way in which becoming a Millennium Congregation would have immediate and positive impact on the ability of rural African villages to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Talk with your Vestry members and prayerfully consider this new ministry for St. Thomas'. Let us be an effective part of the .7% solution for Africa.