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The Econet Wireless Vaccine Project, a joint project by Zimbabwean telecom company Econet Wireless and NGO Energise the Chain (EtC), has won the award for Best Mobile Health Product or Service at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain

The award-winning idea involves using mobile phone base stations as a source of energy to power vaccine refrigeration units in remote areas in Zimbabwe. Judges termed the idea 'simple, extraordinary and truly creative'.

Every year, two million children under the age of five die as they do not have easy and quick access to vaccines. Most of these deaths are due to disruptions to the cold chain that renders temperature-sensitive vaccines ineffective.

Another notable win at the award ceremony was by Turkey-based telecom firm Turkcell, who bagged the award for the Best Mobile Product, Service or App for Accessibility or Ease-of-Use, for its interactive voice response (IVR) and mobile app My Dream Partner.

The app helps the visually-impaired gain access to information using speech recognition and speech-text technology. My Dream Partner can be downloaded for free on Android and iOS devices.

The 19th annual Global Mobile Awards (GMA) were held during the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The awards were presented by Jon Fredrik Baksaas, chairman of GSMA, GSMA director general Anne Bouverot, and John Hoffman, CEO of GSMA Ltd. Other categories included Best Smartphone and Best Mobile Tablet, awarded to the HTC One and Apple’s iPad Air respectively.

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