How do we get people involved?
Local communities play a key role in the success of this project and we are collaborating with a number of groups in Tanzania and DRC to obtain their help in: i) studying the effectiveness of this new methodology in comparison to other mosquito survey methods in homes; ii) determining the feasibility of using this system remotely to monitor mosquitoes in data-poor areas; and iii) understanding the effectiveness of including airtime or money payments into the MozzWear app in order to promote greater community involvement in the HumBug project.
Our collaborators (Ifakara Health Institute and Kinshasa School of Public Health) have already established a working relationship with the selected communities (4 villages in Tanzania and 2 in DRC) through their ongoing traditional mosquito survey. With the help of this existing partnership, we are building a network of individuals in local communities and district-level leaders to help us design and find the most effective way to implement the system in HumBug project in Africa.
Our long-term goal for the HumBug project is for communities to maintain and support the use of the app themselves via a network of community volunteers. These volunteers will be responsible for maintaining and using the smartphone in their home in the adapted bednet at night and ensuring the sound data capture is uploaded correctly to the web platform. In our project, we are therefore also working to understand the type of incentives (financial or other alternatives) that would make it attractive to become a community volunteer and any ethical considerations that may arise from this.
