AudiencScapes

The fact that South Africa has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the world and rapid
adoption of mobile phone technology led to Youth Africa Live – a portal for
young people to talk about HIV/AIDS. By blending serious, educational content
with entertainment the platform has managed to build a sizeable audience.

By Paromita Pain

In less than two years, the South African AIDS-education project Young Africa Live is engaging hundreds of thousands of young people in sensitive discussions about love, sex and HIV/AIDS. Earlier this summer, the project released findings from its “Youth Sex Survey,” unprecedented in both size and content. The survey, conducted on the mobile platform that is the centerpiece of Young Africa Live, pulls back the curtain on what young South Africans think about crucial issues affecting their sexual health.

The Young Africa Live survey received more than 130,000 responses from the mobile platform’s users, the majority of whom are between 16 and 24. Findings included a high percentage (44 percent) of South African youth admitting they are sexually active at the same time that they are significantly concerned about HIV/AIDS – 81 percent of respondents indicated they equate “not telling a sexual partner that you carry the virus” with outright murder. In good news for the government’s promotion of circumcision as part of an overall HIV prevention program, a huge number of females – 78 percent -- stated that they prefer a circumcised partner.

Young Africa Live included some superficial questions in the poll, like whether guys and girls can be “just friends.” Placing serious and entertaining content side by side is the content formula Young Africa Live employs across its mobile platform – a combination that has proved successful for building an audience of more than 400,00 active users.

Young Africa Live’s founding organization, the Praekelt Foundation, didn’t want to brand the project as an “AIDS portal.” They avoided explicitly describing the platform as related to AIDS because of the stigma associated with the disease and the fact that many South Africans, particularly those who do not know their HIV-status, may not identify with that label.  

“Our approach is not to preach, but to allow discussion, dialogue and community support,” says Marcha Neethling, Head of Operations for Praekelt.

Growing popularity of mobile content

The concept for Young Africa Live evolved from the recognition that South African youth are becoming avid users of mobile portals like Vodafone Live and MTNPlay. The Johannesburg-based Praekelt Foundation, which leverages mobile technology to improve the “health and well-being of people living in poverty,” was looking for a way to educate young South Africans about HIV/AIDS.  According to Neethling, they saw an opportunity in the fact that millions of young people use these mobile portals to chat, download music, read up on celebrity and sports news, participate in competitions, and win prizes.
 
“We realized that no source of interesting HIV/AIDS or sexual health information could be found on these portals and that this created a massive opportunity,” explains Neethling. “South Africa is a country with the highest number of HIV-positive citizens in the world. We also have more active SIM cards than people.”

In 2009, the Praekelt Foundation launched the Young Africa Live platform on December 1 (World Aids Day). These days the platform garners impressive traffic statistics. Since it launched in December 2009, Young Africa Live reports 45 million page views and more than 1.3 million comments on the daily stories and discussion topics. 

Corporate partnership creates access

The Praekelt Foundation works with the Vodacom South African Foundation and Vodafone Live, who currently supports Young Africa Live by allowing free access to Vodafone customers.  

“We had to find a network operator partner that was willing to give us access to their platform at zero cost to the end-user,” says Neethling. “It took a long time to convince our current partner, Vodacom, but now that they can see the results, they are very passionate about the portal and the potential it holds for this community.”

In an email interview, a spokesperson for the Vodacom Foundation, Vodacom’s philanthropic arm, expressed satisfaction with the popularity of the platform.  According to Vodacom, the project’s success lies in the fact that it speaks directly to young people, in “a language they understand, and through a medium that they are very comfortable with.” Because it creates a safe space for youth to talk about important issues, they are “empowered to make important decisions about lifestyle choices.”

Lively content draws repeat visitors

Although other mobile phone-based services related to HIV/AIDS operate in South Africa – like RedChatZone -- Young Africa Live offers a different experience. On a daily basis, the portal publishes news articles, user-generated stories, quizzes, video downloads, polls on various topics, and live chats with experts such us sexual health experts, a medical doctor, and people who live positively with HIV/AIDS.

According to Neethling, offering a wide spectrum of “stuff to do” draws users back for more.

The platform capitalizes on young people’s interest in celebrities to educate them about sexual and reproductive health issues. For example, one story, “Celebrity Womanizer:  Usher thinks he should be having more sex. Cool or not?”, created quite a buzz. With users prompted to hit “like” and “dislike” buttons, they can weigh in instantly and such stories often lead to more serious discussions around safe sex, being faithful to one partner and protection against HIV-infection.

The platform’s most popular features are the blogs.

“We have a team of up to 15 bloggers that write for the portal on an ongoing basis... They know well what the issues on the ground are, and what this audience wants to talk about,” says Neethling.

Young Africa Live gives community members an opportunity to share their stories with peers. For example, a story posted by Lefa shares her deep sadness after her mother died of AIDS: “I know where I come from which makes it quite clear where I want to go. After I lost my mother in 2005, I went blank and thought it was useless to live.”  

“Such personal stories from community members usually draw amazing support and advice from fellow-community members,” says Neethling. She explains that the project has a system for flagging users who may be in crisis or need help, who are then sent the number of a helpline or support service.

Expanding their reach

Young Africa Live’s biggest challenge going forward is giving subscribers on the other big networks -- like MTN, CellC and 8Ta in South Africa – access to their platform. Besides taking the platform to the rest of the country, future plans include the development of new features, like creating more personalized, but still private identities, as well as more in-depth research projects that measure behavior change (for example, whether the platform motivates users to get an HIV-test) as a result of information or support users received on Young Africa Live.

“We believe the information on Young Africa Live is applicable to other developing countries,” says Neethling. “We are actively looking for partners to localize some of our content to address pressing issues that affect young people in countries like India, Brazil or Bangladesh.”

Paromita Pain
has been employed with The Hindu Newspaper, Chennai, India since
January 2003. She writes for young people on a range of themes, with a
special interest in media for young people, health issues, human rights
and youth in situations of conflict.
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