Mobile games about HIV/AIDS expanded to Africa

ZMQ, a company that has had a lot of success creating mobile games in India, has expanded four of their HIV/AIDS education games to African networks, including Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Namibia.

ZMQ has a very forward thinking model, "The company is also focused on developing innovative ICT products for new markets of the world at the Bottom-of-the-Pyramid by successfully reaching out to grass-root, under-privileged, and marginalized communities; based on viable and self-sustaining business models in support of the social cause."

With a partnership with a major mobile operator in India, ZMQ was able to offer the gaming tools to the public for free of charge.

One of the games is based on Cricket, super popular in India. It works in items like condoms or faithful characters to move game play along.

For an expanded case study see ShareIdeas, a fast growing wiki that showcases mobile projects with social agendas.

CondomCondom: A New Multimedia Campaign to Promote Condom Use in India

The BBC World Trust has put together an interesting and rounded multimedia campaign called CondomCondom. The CondomCondom campaign sprinkles whimsy and humor on a difficult subject- condom use- and makes it not only palatable but entertaining and fun. They have even made a CondomCondom ringtone. The ringtone is a medly of people singing the condom over and over again. The description doesn't do it justice because really after a minute it just makes you giggle. I think making people laugh could go a long way toward changing attitudes towards condoms. The project was supported by National AIDS Control Organisation and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

View and Vote - top Teensource condom designs!

The California Family Health Council's 2008 Condom Cover Art Contest is underway, and the clock is ticking to choose your favorites from the top 45 entries on the TeenSource contest hub.

The contest was designed to give young adults the opportunity to educate their peers about STDs through art. Participants aged 13-25 sent in their creative ideas and are in the pool for one of 6 $500 awards that will be presented at an upcoming press conference in Los Angeles.

Voting ends September 2, and trust me, it isn't easy to choose. Vote now!

Whyville is Once again Ripe Testing Groud

Whyville is a popular online community for younger teens, loosely centered on science and exploration. Like any cluster of pre-teens and teens (physical or virtual) Whyville is full of persona testing and attempts to form and understand community. Whyville seems like amazingly interesting groud to study how pre-teens and teens share information and what information they share in this world of UGC. Check out this study by Professors at USC and the University of Pennsylvania. They are using Whyville as a case study to research "tweens and reproductive health in virtual worlds."

Civic Engagement on the Move and SexINFO

The Aspen Institute recently published Civic Engagement On The Move, a report of the roundtable on Mobile Media and Civic Engagement. SexInfo is included as a case study of Civic and Engagement and the New Mobile Activism.

(Quoted From the Aspen Institute's summary of the book)
Civic Engagement on the Move looks at how leading edge practitioners are using mobile media to engage citizens to solve problems, bridge differences and strengthen community. Mobile media technologies provide new tools for journalists, government and nonprofit agencies, civic organizers, elected officials, activists and ordinary citizens to inform, to reach out to others and to galvanize community action on a wide range of issues. Civic Engagement on the Move, written by J.D. Lasica, details the hallmarks of successful mobile campaigns around civic engagement and provides case studies of several successful and emerging initiatives, including those that came out of the recent Aspen Institute Roundtable on Mobile Media and Civic Engagement. Noted experts in the field add their insights on using mobile media, with a list of “Mobile Advocacy Dos and Don’ts” by Katrin Verclas of MobileActive and “A Mobile Media User’s Guide” by Jed Alpert, CEO of Mobile Commons.

Click here to read the report online and here to download a pdf

U.S. Teens Have More STDs

Everything is bigger in the U.S. Yes, we need 22 ounces of coffee, yes please super size that, yes my mc-mansion can eat your mc-mansion. But the substantial size gap between the pregnancy rate of U.S. teens is frightening when compared to the pregnancy rates of other industrialized nations.

Check out the results of Advocates for Youth and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte sponsored annual study tour. The tours go to France, Germany, and the Netherlands to explore why adolescent sexual health outcomes are so much more positive in the three European countries than in the U.S.

Here are some staggering facts:

Syphilis

In the United States, the teen syphilis rate is over six times higher than that of the Netherlands, over five times higher than the rate in former West Germany, and nearly three times higher than that in former East Germany. Data are not available for France.


Gonorrhea

In the United States, the teen gonorrhea rate is over 74 times higher than that in the Netherlands and France, over 66 times higher than the rate in former West Germany, and over 38 times higher than that in former East Germany.


Chlamydia

In the United States, the teen chlamydia rate is over 20 times higher than that in France. Data are not available for Germany or the Netherlands.



These statistics combined with the fact that both teens in Europe and The U.S. start having sex at roughly the same time seems to clearly point out that our all or nothing attitude is not serving our teens well.

HIV is Still a big deal!

Check out episodes 1 & 2 of HIV Big Deal, Public Health Solutions' HIV prevention project for gay
men.

The Morning After, Episode 1:


The Test, Episode 2:

Underwear and Sex::Tech '09!

We asked people "what would your undies say if they had the last word" in safe sex and STI prevention. As it turns out our undies had a lot to say because the 500+ entries to the campaign gave them a voice. These undies have spread across the Internet and along with them ideas of safe sex, STI prevention and all around healthy attitudes toward sex are reaching viral proportions. The 500+ entries have gotten over 650,000 engagements through votes, views, reviews and content created and entries can be seen in close to 700 different places online. I'm attaching the full press release and an image of our winning pair!

With the success of this contest, we at ISIS, were again reminded of the need to talk to young people about sex and sexual health. We see that the Internet and mobile technologies have strengthened youth networks, provided new avenues for expression, and increased youth access to tools and information designed to improve their sexual health. ISIS would like to announce that the second Sex::Tech conference will be held March 22 & 23 in San Francisco. Sex::Tech will explore available tools and methods for reaching youth with culturally appropriate STD/HIV prevention and sex education interventions from a youth perspective, with input from public health professionals, educators, researchers, and technology developers.



Here is a little bit about the winners of the inBrief underwear design contest:

• Grand Prize winner Tina Nguyen (Pomona, CA) designed Riding Safely, a line of men's and women's underwear that lets partners know they need a ticket to ride. Ms. Nguyen will receive $1000 (scholarship or cash equivalent) and 12 pairs of women's underwear with her design.

• Image Buzz winner Dan Brown (Corvallis, OR) designed The Real Reason Dinosaurs Went Extinct, that ponders what if dinosaurs knew about safe sex? Dan will receive $250 (scholarship or cash equivalent) for the best entry among the top 100 generating the most attention across the Internet as determined by the ISIS expert selection panel.

• Community Sweepstakes winner Chrissy Olsen (Muncie, IN) will receive $250 (scholarship or cash equivalent) from among everyone participating in the contest in any way (whether viewer, reviewer, or voter) as selected by Brickfish.