Еvery year In Bulgaria there are over 40,000 strokes. This is the reason the country to rank at the forefront of negative statistics worldwide. Among the major factors in reference to stroke are the lack of knowledge among Bulgarians about stroke, its nature, the risk factors leading to its occurrence and the proper behaviour for reaction when stroke happens. The Association for Stroke and Aphasia has provided to stroke survivors over the last 2 years a National Stroke Support Line 0700 11 404 which proved another significant lack of knowledge among Bulgarian population about the stroke services provided by state and local government, the non-governmental sector and informal communities.
All these facts were the reason for developing a tool for mass information about stroke in accessible, timely and effective way for all Bulgarian citizens.
Among the discussed opportunities, the Association for Stroke and Aphasia preferred an information robot that through a contextual menu to provide brief basic information with references to larger data sets. An advantage of the chosen form is the possibility of combined use of text and image as means of expression for direct informational contact with the audience.
While analyzing which are the appropriate platforms for such project, the Association for Stroke and Aphasia(ASA) decided that platform's accessibility is the leading criterion. It was clear that one platform is very popular among all age groups and this is Viber - so this is why itwas chosen by ASA as a platform for the project realization.
This project strictly adheres to the principles of moral and financial independence. Developer pro-bono services were used for the realization of the project, hours were donated by experts, and the Viber platform contractually undertook to distribute and maintain the infobot free of charge for unlimited period of time.
The Association for Stroke and Aphasia in cooperation with the Ministry of Health will distribute the infobot on all available channels, as the starting event for introducing the Stroke infobot will be a dedicated press conference.
ASA plans to involve a wide range of organizations in a consortium for distributing the stroke InfoBot, whereas each organization will develop and implement a dedicated stroke InfoBot media plan.
The stroke InfoBot initiated and realised by the Association for Stroke and Aphasia is available in Viber when searching for the keyword "stroke" in Bulgarian. It can be easily recognized by the logo of the organization and its name written next to it.
Other means of connection with the bot are:
Facebook: https://vb.me/42e19f
Instagram: https://vb.me/149460
Youtube: https://vb.me/e09597
Email: https://vb.me/9e0bdc
Website: https://vb.me/a4eb1e
You can scan the QR code below as an easy way to access the bot:
