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Mobile Phones and Social Media inspire positive behaviour among students - HIVSA

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Non-profit organisation HIVSA kicked off an interactive art installation this week at the UJ student orientation First Year Experience, to raise awareness amongst university students about HIV and behaviours that put them at risk. The innovative mobile pop-up exhibition is running across four UJ campuses, namely Soweto, Kingsway, Bunting and Doornfontein, and was created in collaboration with UJ’s Institutional Office for HIV & AIDS (IOHA).

HIVSA and IOHA peer educators worked together to deliver an experiential art installation that aims to educate, empower and inspire first year students at the University of Johannesburg. Taking place over four days 21, 22, 23 and 28th January 2015, the mobile exhibition aims to incite dialogue and conversation around HIV and risky behaviour among students, and provide links to information and support using CHOMA an interactive online magazine accessible via digital and social media platforms.

The Choma pop-up exhibition showcases three key statistics sourced from the South African National HIV Prevalence, Incidence and Behaviour Survey, published by Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) last year. According to the survey, 79% of people believe they are not at risk of contracting HIV. This is the case with many varsity students, particularly first year students who often engage in risky sexual behaviour putting them at risk of contracting STI’s including HIV. This statistic is visually displayed with hanging mannequins reflecting the reality that the majority of young people believe they are not at risk (8 out of 10); while only a minority acknowledge that they are at risk of HIV.

A condom wall at the pop up stall features pink and blue condoms displayed in the shape of “Be Safe”. Multi-coloured condoms are being given freely to the students, as part of Choma’s behaviour change goal to inspire positive behaviour change and to encourage safe sex behaviour. This is in order to increase the statistic stating that only 36% of people use a condom every time they have sex, according to the HSRC survey.

Thulani Machere, HIVSA mobile health community and stakeholder liaison said: “We want young people to personalise these statistics for themselves and empower them to shape attitudes that lead to a healthy lifestyle.”

According to the survey, only 30% of people know the facts about HIV transmission. Students have the chance to join the conversation by writing on a chalk board and making a pledge as to how they are going to keep themselves and their loved one’s safe from HIV transmission. By doing so, the students get the opportunity to engage in knowledge sharing around HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

Rainny Magcai, head of UJ Institutional Office for HIV and AIDS, says: “The collaborative partnership between Choma and UJ (IOHA & Campus Health) has lifted us to greater heights; improving our student outreach and impact. We started with first year experience HIV awareness programme, which is already a huge success at the two campuses i.e. APK & APB. Ground breaking today was APB where we received an amazing response, evidence that we have managed to use methods that talks to that particular student’s community. There is therefore clear indication that 2015 is indeed going to be a very successful year in finally having campaigns addressing our student community. Forward we go and united we stand!”

CHOMA is HIVSA's interactive mobi magazine that ensures that everything from love and relationships to inspiration, health, fashion and beauty gets readers coming back on a regular basis. CHOMA’s main goal however, is to engage with young women through Facebook, Mxit, Mobi, and Twitter in a way that inspires and empowers them to be the next HIV free generation. In just over a year CHOMA has built up an audience of over 680 000 subscribers.

For more information about HIVSA contact 011 494 1900 or visit www.hivsa.com. Alternatively, connect with CHOMA Magazine at Choma.mobi, on Facebook, at MyChoma on Mxit, and @Chomamag on Twitter.

Hi4LIFE se apoya en ser un programa de consultoría médica que integra la atención primeria de salud con los sistemas de medicina electrónica. Esto se hace posible a través del mHealth, la salud en tu móvil.

La iniciativa la presenta la ONG sudafricana HIVSA en el marco de su campaña de mHealth “Información de salud fiable en tu teléfono móvil”. El objetivo principal es promover la salud sexual y reproductiva, además de tratar temas de salud general poniendo atención en el cuidado de niños.

Para acceder a los servicios de mHealth de hi4LIFE, la persona debe ir a un menú en el que encontrará una amplia diversidad de información. Dentro del menú, podrá escoger lo que sea de su interés y, una vez seleccionado, recibirá una serie de SMS sobre el tema. Por otra parte, también se pueden acceder a sitios web móvil optimizados, en el caso de hi4LIFE existe mama-mobi o baby.mobi, que permiten acceder a áreas de interés específico y realizar preguntas o comentarios, lo que permitiría llegar a la interacción.

La pretensión es que, a través de esta plataforma, profesionales de la salud y la población puedan acceder a información relevante, actualizada y precisa sobre cualquier tema de salud, en privado y en cualquier momento y lugar. Marcando esto tan solo como el principio, los temas principales son VIH, tuberculosis y salud materno-infantil., además de la nutrición sobre el embarazo, depresión post-parte, circuncisión, ITS, vacunas e inmunización, disfunción eréctil, desarrollo infantil, planificación familiar y apoyo a la mujer.

¿Problemas?

La iniciativa nada entre bastantes dificultades. Sudáfrica es un país complejo y muy distinto de nuestra cultura y forma de vida Occidental. Por ello, además de enfocar la medicina desde un punto de vista extranjero, se hace de una forma muy limitada para la población. Hay una limitada penetración de la tecnología móvil, cerca del 60%, que excluiría con principal fuerza a los más necesitados de información y educación sanitaria, a pesar de que el sistema de aplicaciones, gracias al acuerdo con una operadora, sería gratuito.