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Young Africa Live Mobile Portal Launched - A World First To Get The Youth Talking
Posted: 01.12.2009
Give the youth a platform, and they will speak their minds. Make this platform accessible and encourage a discourse on topics that are relevant to them, and you've got a conversation going. Get a conversation going and experiences are shared; ideas are swapped. And when you swap and share, you create an environment of communal education, one which you can contribute to, and benefit from. This is the motivation behind Young Africa Live, the world's first entertainment-oriented mobile portal that focuses on stimulating discussion around Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
Young Africa Live has been developed for young guys and girls by the Praekelt Foundation and is supported by the Vodacom Foundation. The focus is on hearing real stories about the conflicting (and often confusing) worlds of sex, love and relationships, straight from the mouths of South African youth. Visitors will access a mobile blog where a cross-section of young contributors from all over South Africa share their feelings and thoughts on relevant issues. Users can post comments and in so doing generate discussions. "We really want to get people talking and sharing opinions," explains Gustav Praekelt, Founder of the Praekelt Foundation. "And we want to get the whole continent participating. We see Young Africa Live becoming Africa's central news and information hub for all youth-oriented issues relating to matters of health, sexual health and gender".
For the Young Africa Live portal the intention is to be honest and get to the point. Rather than gloss over issues, Young Africa Live plans to tackle them straight on and provoke discussion around what would usually be deemed taboo subjects. With information being contributed by peers the usual barriers are broken down. "It's no longer a case of being spoken to, but an opportunity to get involved. The more users understand that their problems are shared by others, the more they're likely to realise that the only way to tackle these issues is to do it together. It's a case of the youth figuring out solutions for themselves" says Praekelt.
But as much as Young Africa Live is about first-hand experiences and individual opinions, a large part of it is to provide youth with the facts. Users will also find practical advice and personal tips on how to deal with relevant scenarios like the stigma attached to being HIV-positive, how to obtain ARVs and their effectiveness, disclosing sexual issues to close family, and how to deal with opportunistic infections.
As Young Africa Live rolls out, it will be discussing a whole range of issues from safe sex, gender violence and TB to gay and lesbian rights and self-actualization. But there's fun to be had too. Young Africa Live will also feature local and international news and celebrity gossip that involves topics around sex and sexuality or other issues affecting young people. It's a mixture of the saucy, the titillating and the socially conscious. Other features include the Metropolitan Foundation 'B the future' CellBook, a comprehensive A-Z on HIV/AIDS that is downloadable from a user's cellphone, help and testing site contact numbers, and fun and educational quizzes where users can win airtime.
Young Africa Live will be hosted by Vodafone Live, South Africa's largest digital portal with over 3 million unique visitors per month. Vodacom, as the mobile partner, will make it possible for users to visit the site for free with no download or bandwidth charges. Comments Praekelt: "South Africa has the highest penetration of mobile phones and the highest prevalence of HIV which makes the development of Young Africa Live an extremely relevant and important initiative for us to be supporting"
Young Africa Live launched on Vodafone Live on the 1st of December 2009, World AIDS Day. It is one of a number of mobile services being promoted by the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) in an effort convey critical information about HIV to South Africa cellphone users, who make up 80% of the total population. The portal is currently only available to Vodacom customers, but plans are to make it available on all networks in South Africa, in early 2010.