What’s the Point of a Text Message…?

What’s the point of a text message if the person receiving it can’t read it? Because cell phones require less physical infrastructure than typical broadband internet access, people in developing countries are using them as their primary computers. Rural farmers are gaining access to information that would take days to get to them before access to mobile phones was so widespread. So, how can we reach individuals in rural areas of developing countries who can’t read? Sure, technology exists that allows for voice transmission of these messages. Since “mobile phones have leapfrogged past land-line technologies in many parts of the world”, can we use this example to “leapfrog” past a traditional classroom environment to teach the nearly 1 billion illiterate adults in the world how to read? Since the majority of illiterate adults are woman, can we use their sense of community and motherly instincts as a conduit for passing on knowledge by developing small cell phone networks to share information within different rural communities?