In sub-Saharan Africa and Uganda, low internet penetration makes radio the preferred medium of social communication. Radio lets information flow from top to bottom and from the bottom to the top. For example, government and local village policies are announced first on radio in the local community language from top to bottom. From the bottom to the top, people's concerns, particularly in rural communities, most get heard through the various radio talk shows where they can call in. Recently, most of the discussions around the country have been centered around the COVID-19 pandemic and the government lockdown. Yet, while radio provides means to gather information about the concerns of people and the spread of COVID-19 discussions, there currently exists no way to retrieve this information except manually listening from nearly 300 licensed radio stations, which live in almost every village in Uganda. Radio Mining workstream is an end-to-end AI and data system for targeted surveillance and management of COVID-19 and future pandemics affecting Uganda.
