Rashid Khan Improves Health Care in Africa

AHWATUKE,AZ– Rashid Khan, a 26 year old Mountain Pointe High School grad, who entered the Peace Corps, has been lauded by the Peace Corps for co-developing of a new software that “revoltionizes health care in Namibia.”

Health Education Response (HER), the software developed by Rashid Khan, uses software designed to provide health information through mobile phone-based SMS permitting the program to operate nationwide in Namibia. The HER program distributes health information through pre-written content on major topics, and also forwards user questions to a pool of Peace Corps Volunteers prepared to field a wide array of health-related inquiries including topics related to HIV/AIDS and birth control. In June 2009, the system exchanged 2,382 SMSs with 325 unique clients.

Khan says he was inspired by his mother, Joy Gallagher, who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya in the 1970s following her graduation from the University of Massachussets.

The HER program distributes health information through pre-written content on major topics, and also forwards user questions to a pool of Peace Corps Volunteers prepared to field a wide array of health-related inquiries including topics related to HIV/AIDS and birth control. In June 2009, the system exchanged 2,382 SMSs with 325 unique clients.

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