Facebook announced its partnership with the Ethiopian government to keep Ethiopians safe and informed about COVID-19 through updates on its platform.
Facebook is enabling educational pop-ups on search results around the virus on all its platforms, the company is also providing the Ministry of Health with free ad credits to enable them run coronavirus education campaigns on its platforms.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Facebook has launched WhatsApp Business API, a dedicated Coronavirus hotline – 0962228565. The Coronavirus hotline is an automated ‘chatbot’ service which will enable Ethiopians to get answers to the most common questions about Coronavirus from the Ministry of Health 24 hours a day. The service will also provide information on topics such as Coronavirus prevention and symptoms, advice on staying at home, travel advisory and mythbusting. The service will also enable the Ministry of Health to send urgent messages to all Ethiopians who will opt-in for the service.
Included in its ongoing efforts, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Facebook has also trained government officials on the best practices of using Facebook tools to educate Ethiopians on the government’s efforts around COVID-19.