Pune, India

Question Box is piloted on an ongoing basis in Pune, India, in conjunction with our affiliate Open Mind Trust (India) and hardware partner Propellex. In Pune, we have set up metal Question Boxes in several public places, both in rural village and slum areas, testing many configurations. Users are invited to ask questions on any topic they wish. The calls go to Operators seated in front of computers, who look up the questions in English or Hindi, and return the answer in the caller’s local language. We have added new sites in Pune, thanks to a generous grant from NIXI – the National Internet Exchange of India. These have been placed at Maher homes for women and children. Open Mind - Question Box has a core team of engineers, program staff and volunteers that test and iterate the Question Box system. We have created a Question Box with solar panels, and are about to launch a new Question Box that will have multiple call destination buttons. That means, one Question Box can call several hotlines - for example, education, local hospital, and government information lines. We are evolving our backend processes and producing replicable operating procedures. We use these learnings to teach other organizations how to set up and run their own Question Box service from their offices, thereby spreading the impact and reach a thousandfold.