Background

Young Africa Live (YAL) was born out of the discovery that in a country with the biggest HIV/AIDS pandemic in the world, one of South Africa's largest mobile portals did not hold a single piece of information about the pandemic; where to get tested; how to practice safe sex and how to avoid getting it.

This discovery sparked an idea at Praekelt Foundation, to build a mobile platform that is entertainment-oriented, fun, interactive, and provocative. A platform that would not simply state the facts and "lecture" young people about the do's and donts, but that rather creates a space where young South Africans could talk about hot topics that affect their daily lives: love, sex, relationships, gender and cultural issues, as well as HIV/AIDS.

Praekelt Foundation developed this portal, which was launched on 1 Dec, World Aids Day 2009. It is supported and hosted by Vodafone Live and is currently available to Vodacom subscribers in South Africa.

About YAL

Young Africa Live consists of dynamic and static content pieces.

Under the dynamic content section, daily news / celebrity stories are posted and young people can rate (say if they like it) or leave a comment about the story. We also have contracted guest bloggers (male and female) who write blogs about their experiences with love, sex, dating, cultural dilemma's, gender stereotypes, etc. All comments are being moderated and fellow-users can report a comment as being "abusive". Rules for commenting are enforced in that rude or derogatory commentators are first warned, and if they persist with that line of commenting, they are banned from the portal.

Under the static content section, we have more "hardcore" pieces of information about the basic facts around HIV and AIDS; as well as helpline numbers and referral organisations who can support YAL-users in times of need. We are grateful for the generous support of all our NGO partners and government institutions who can act on cries for help and support YAL-users where needed.

Our content partners include Traffik, Matchboxology, iTeach, Cell-Life, and Mindset.

Objectives

The Objectives of Young Africa Live (YAL) are to:

1) Share information & Educate:

Make crucial health and lifestyle information available via the mobile portal and reach more than 30 million South Africans every month. The aim is to educate young people in Africa about HIV/AIDS and other sexual health issues in a fun, engaging, interactive, gender-sensitive, and entertaining way.

2) Generate Discussion

Through a gender-specific blog (i.e. a male and female writer will write daily blogs from their gender's perspective) where portal visitors can comment and have their voices heard, on topics such as HIV/ AIDS, health, relationships, sex, sexuality, love, and gender issues.

3) Promote HIV testing

Through easy-to-use portal information and linkages to VCT (voluntary counseling and testing) centres. If we conservatively say that 20% of the South African population are HIV-positive, that means 20% of the users on this mobile portal will be HIV-positive, but might not know their status and might continue practicing risky behavior and putting themselves and their loved ones at risk of infection. It is therefore crucial that we use this platform to, through interactive discussion, create enough peer pressure that young people will test themselves for HIV.

Access YAL Now

Vodacom subscribers in South Africa can access YAL by going to live.vodafone.com in their phone browsers. Once inside Vodafone Live, click on the "Lifestyle" button, which will take you through to Young Africa Live. It is free for you to browse, leave comments, read stories on YAL. Please read our news / celeb stories and blogs, leave your comments and let us know what you think of the portal.

MTN and CellC subscribers, hang in there! We are negotiating with your operators to get this same content available to you.

Results So Far

In the first 6 weeks of YAL's life, (1 Dec 2009 - 14 January 2010), we've seen tremendous results:

• 1,226,743 = Total page impressions
• 57,029 = Total comments made
• 45,480 = Total unique users on the portal

Get Involved

• If you are an NGO with existing youth-orientated content (especially video clips) in topics such as love, sex, relationships, HIV/AIDS, gender issues, sexually transmitted diseases, cultural practices, etc. ...
• If you are a mobile application developer with experience in developing games, quizzes, ringtones, or other fun stuff on mobile ...
• If you represent any of the mobile operators in Africa or other developing territories, and would like YAL on you mobile portal...

Please send an email to marcha@praekeltfoundation.org - we'd love to partner with you to broaden the scope of Young Africa Live.