YoungAfricaLive (YAL) has taken the temperature of young Africans – and found their attitudes to love sizzling hot, but surprisingly mature.
YoungAfricaLive (YAL) has taken the temperature of young Africans – and found their attitudes to love sizzling hot, but surprisingly mature.
Over the past 10 days, YoungAfricaLive users in South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania were given the chance to cast a vote each day on a broad spectrum of polls that covered everything from straight-up love to what’s going down with sex.
Those who doubt the seriousness with which young Africans take relationships and sex will be surprised to know that most respondents agreed that “Sex is always better with someone you love” (76% of over 4000 YAL users).
There’s also a hopeless romantic streak in YoungAfricaLive (YAL) users with the majority of those polled admitting you can’t stop yourself falling in love. “The heart wants what the heart wants”, 62 % of close to 3500 users acknowledged.
When it comes to tying the knot, a massive 88% of close to 4000 users said that a marriage needs love to succeed – an acknowledgment of the seriousness with which YAL users take this aspect of their romantic life, even though for many it lies a good few years ahead.
On a more sober note, users showed a considered sense of what’s right and wrong in response to the question: “Love is stronger than… a rough hand: True or False?” Only 17% agreed that a man can raise his hand against a woman and still love her, with close to 80% saying either it’s never okay for a man to take such action or that this should be termed “bad love”.
And young Africans hold little truck with cheaters: at least half of the users said that if their partner cheated they would pack their bags and head for the road – close to 2000 of around 4000 votes.
Against a backdrop of Africa’s HIV/Aids statistics, 52% of young Africans defined love as always using a condom to protect the one you love. This is as opposed to the 5% who said that love is having sex without a condom “because you trust one another”, 21% defining love as “taking an HIV test together”, or the 20% who defined it as “coming clean about your sexual past”.
79% of the guys who voted said that they show their love by being caring and supportive while 84% of the girls who voted said the same. The feminists amongst us would be reassured to know that very few women voted to show their love by “cleaning up after him”, “making sure his dinner is waiting when he comes home” or “having sex with him whenever he wants it”.
When asked what’s most important in a relationship, an overwhelming 70% of votes opted for the solid foundation of friendship, trust and support - over and above love, good sex or financial security.
Says Gustav Praekelt of the Praekelt Foundation, “It’s always fascinating when we do polls on YAL, especially when they are around a strong topic like love and romance. Our polls are not definitive, but we do believe that they play a real role in giving an indication of where our users are headed and what is important to them.”
YoungAfricaLive South Africa currently has 831 000 registered users, while new services in Kenya and Tanzania - launched in December 2011 - are rapidly gaining momentum.
About YoungAfricaLive
YoungAfricaLive is a mobile platform that was developed for young guys and girls by the Praekelt Foundation and is supported by the Vodacom Foundation. Access to the mobile platform is free and works even when users have no airtime. YoungAfricaLive’s focuses on exposing and sharing the real stories from African youths navigating the often confusing worlds of sex, love and relationships. A cross-section of young contributors from all over South Africa, Tanzania and now Kenya share their feelings and thoughts on relevant issues. Users post comments on topical issues, ask and receive advice from each other and participate in live chat sessions with relationship and sexual health experts.
About Praekelt Foundation
Established in 2006, Praekelt Foundation is Africa’s leading developer of mobile solutions designed to improve people’s lives. From its Johannesburg base, the social business brings life-saving and life-changing information and services to people in Africa and other developing markets.
Praekelt Foundation believes that mobile phones provide the most potent way of effecting change for good within communities living in poverty.
Quick reference summary
Feel the love – Our YAL Valentine’s polls
Poll 1: In your relationship how often do you say, “I love you”?
Poll 2: Can you have good sex with someone you don’t love?
Poll 3: Can you stop yourself falling in love?
Poll 4: Would you marry someone you didn’t love?
Poll 5: Love is stronger than… a rough hand: True or False?
Poll 6: Love is stronger than… a little bit of cheating: True or False?
Poll 7: Love is…
Poll 8: I’m a guy: I show her I love her by…
Poll 9: I’m a girl: I show him I love him by…
Poll 10: What is most important in a relationship?
YoungAfricaLive (YAL) launches in Kenya today, adding substantially to the award-winning mobile community portal’s presence in East Africa which commenced when YAL Tanzania launched in December 2011.
In bringing the vibrant mobile community to Kenya, Praekelt Foundation has partnered with leading integrated communications firm, Safaricom. This partnership allows young Kenyans to share and discuss the issues they confront daily, via their mobile phone.
YoungAfricaLive has already been launched by Vodacom South Africa and Tanzania- in Kenya it is now available through Safaricom’s SafaricomLIVE portal on www.safaricom.com/wap. A 2005 study showed that 60% of Kenya’s unemployed are under 30, and where UNICEF statistics reveal 20 % of the population live below the international poverty line of US$1.25 per day. In addition, research published by the World Bank indicates that 6.3% of Kenya’s popular of 40.5 million is HIV positive, many of those young people.
Says Safaricom’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Nzioka Waita, “This partnership is key to our digital inclusion agenda. We believe that the best way to improve the utility and therefore take-up of the internet among the youth of Africa and Kenya in particular, is by having relevant content on it and making it accessible to them. Being in the vanguard of the internet explosion in Kenya, we have the network to deliver YAL’s socially relevant and well-packaged message to as many young Kenyans as possible.”
Safaricom has invested heavily in bringing internet access to the Kenyan people. According to government data, nine out of every 10 Kenyans who access the internet regularly do so through the Safaricom network.
“To follow-up a very successful launch in Tanzania late last year with YAL Kenya is a great way to start 2012,” says Gustav Praekelt, founder of Praekelt Foundation. “We are confident that young Kenyans will embrace the mobile platform with the same passion that their South African and Tanzanian counterparts have and use it to create a community that informs, supports and entertains.”
Launched by Praekelt Foundation in 2009 in South Africa, YAL started out as a way of providing young South Africans with free access to information on HIV/AIDS through their mobile device. It has now turned into a community of engaged young people who use YoungAfricaLive to gain reliable information, discuss issues, have fun and gain the support and input of their peers
YAL South Africa, in partnership with Vodacom, already has an approximate 1 million unique users while YAL Tanzania (also in partnership with Vodacom) has already established a strong presence in the country with a steadily growing user base, since 1st December, 2011.
In 2011, Praekelt Foundation was acknowledged for the success of YoungAfricaLive by winning the Social Impact category of the 2011 Global Mobile Marketing Awards for Innovation, Creativity and Leadership in Los Angeles in November.
YoungAfricaLive is available to Safaricom subscribers in Kenya from January 23rd.
For more, visit praekeltfoundation.org or follow us on Twitter at @praekeltfound
YoungAfricaLive launches on Vodacom Tanzania today, marking the start of the award-winning mobile community’s presence in East Africa.
Young Africa Live is a mobile community that entertains and educates young people on topics of love, sexual health, gender and relationships which are issues adversely affecting the youth in Tanzania.
The portal intends to give the youth a platform to speak their minds, through a medium that is accessible, and encourage conversations on topics that are relevant to them. This will then get the conversations going; ideas shared and internalized thereby creating behavior change around relationships, good love, safe sex and HIV.
The platform will therefore empower youth to become catalysts for change, connecting them to Tanzania health care providers and create a new experience of what can be achieved by mobile internet as a platform.
Fittingly, YoungAfricaLive: Tanzania arrives on World Aids Day – two years to the day after YoungAfricaLive’s inception in South Africa where it has proved to be an potent way for young people to share and discuss the issues they confront daily.
YoungAfricaLive: Tanzania is available free to Vodacom subscribers through the Vodacom Mobile portal http://m.vodacom.co.tz. This means that users are able to be on the YoungAfricaLive portal even if they don’t have airtime – a critical element in a country where one of the key millennium development goals is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
“We are thrilled that our partners Vodacom have joined us in launching YoungAfricaLive in Tanzania,” says Gustav Praekelt, founder of Praekelt Foundation.
“Over the past two years, what started out as a desire to provide young South Africans with free access to information on HIV/AIDS through their mobile device has turned into a vibrant community of engaged young people who use YoungAfricaLive to gain information, discuss issues - and also have fun.”
Just recently Praekelt Foundation was acknowledged for the success of YoungAfricaLive in South Africa, which currently has over 656,000 users. The Johannesburg based organization, Africa’s leading developer of mobile solutions to improve people’s lives, was named the first South African winner of the Social Impact category of the Mobile Marketing Awards for Innovation, Creativity and Leadership in Los Angeles in November 2011.
Over two years YoungAfricaLive has grown to become South Africa’s largest mobile community for young people – and with a substantial number of youth in Vodacom Tanzania’s over 10.5-million subscriber base, the uptake of YoungAfricaLive in this country is expected to be as significant.
YoungAfricaLive’s real power comes in providing a space where young Africans can talk about sex, HIV/AIDS, love, relationships, and, increasingly, jobs.
“The fact is that through YoungAfricaLive and Vodacom, Tanzania’s youth can now get onto a mobile platform at no cost and get information on some very topical and important issues,” says Rene Meza, Managing Director Vodacom Tanzania
“Most importantly, YoungAfricaLive gives users the opportunity to ‘talk’ to other young Tanzanians about the things that affect their lives the most – be it their lovelife or female genital mutilation.” Said Rene
As we’ve seen in South Africa, this peer-to-peer conversation is incredibly powerful in changing people’s lives for the better and we are excited about giving young people in Tanzania access to this.
YoungAfricaLive is available free to pre-paid Vodacom subscribers from December 1st.
Last year on 1 December, World Aids Day, YoungAfricaLive became a space for users to pay tribute to and remember those lost to Aids. It all began with a blog story called ‘Today I remember the people I lost’ and evolved into a very moving series of posts from users naming and remembering those they had lost to Aids.
This year, we are creating a real Wall of Tributes on YoungAfricaLive, inviting our users to name those they have lost to the virus.
There is nothing in South Africa like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington DC, a huge slab of black granite that cuts through the neatly manicured lawns with name after name of those lost in the war, listed on it. And yet, millions of South Africans have lost their lives to the disease.
Let’s be the first to acknowledge the impact this pandemic has had on our society. As the numbers of Tributes rise in the course of the day tomorrow, we have an opportunity to create a landmark experience for South African survivors of this pandemic - the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and friends of those lost to - or living with - HIV and Aids.
http://tribute.youngafricalive.com/
Praekelt Foundation has been named the first South African winner of the Social Impact category of the 2011 Mobile Marketing Awards for Innovation, Creativity and Leadership.
At a ceremony in Los Angeles last night on November 17th, the Johannesburg-based foundation was honoured with the Global Gold Award for its YoungAfricaLive project.
“We’re really thrilled at the recognition given to YoungAfricaLive by this award,” said Praekelt Foundation’s Creative Director, Jonathan MacKay who was in LA to accept the award.
“We faced some intense competition from some really strong international projects doing great work,” added MacKay.
“But the fact that YoungAfricaLive is recognised as having the most potent social impact is a real boost to the project, a credit to our partners and, really, an accolade that deserves to be shared with the whole YoungAfricaLive community whose passionate participation makes it the success that it is.”
YoungAfricaLive was nominated for the Social Impact category alongside Giorgio Armani and R/GA’s Aqua di Gio Armani Drops for Life App, Waterfall Mobile’s Waiting for ‘Superman’ Social Action Campaign and Busday and TELiBrahma’s Busday gets buzzier project.
Finalists in the 2011 Mobile Marketing Awards for Innovation, Creativity and Leadership represent the best-of-the-best in mobile marketing from across the globe.
“The over 25% increase in submissions from all over the world is indicative of how mobile marketing is being embraced by major brand marketers everywhere as integral to their marketing mix, ” said Greg Stuart, Global CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association.
Hosted on Vodafone Live and available free to Vodacom users in South Africa, YoungAfricaLive is a community that shares and discusses critical issues facing Africa’s youth, including love, sex, relationships and HIV/AIDS. It celebrates its second birthday on December 1st this year and counts over a six hundred thousand active users as part of its rapidly growing community.
In October, a new addition to the YoungAfricaLive platform came in the form of Africa’s first mobile career opportunities social network, Ummeli.
Since its launch less than a month ago, Ummeli has attracted over 20,000 active users, all aiming to take advantage of a supportive community of young jobseekers that can offer advice, suggestions, ideas exchange, connections and information on jobs, bursaries and grants.
Winning the Global Gold in the Social Impact category of the 2011 Mobile Marketing Awards for Innovation, Creativity and Leadership follows on the heels of another recent Praekelt Foundation accolade.
On October 26th, the Praekelt Foundation’s appointment reminder system for people on chronic medication, TxtAlert, was named the first winner of the Tech4Africa Innovation Award, created to encourage innovation in solving uniquely African problems whilst also encouraging global thinking.
YoungAfricaLive, Ummeli, TxtAlert and Project Masiluleke are all projects that embody Praekelt Foundation’s mission of building open source, scalable mobile technologies and solutions to improve the health and well-being of people living in poverty. Already, with the support of funders like Omidyar Network, programmes that have emerged out of Praekelt Foundation and its partners have reached over 50 million people across 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Praekelt Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Colin Abouchabki as the Chief Operating Officer of the Praekelt Foundation. Colin will be taking up the reigns from the 1st of November, ushering in a new chapter for the flourishing non-profit organisation.
Chairman of the Foundation’s board, Gustav Praekelt, welcomed Colin to the growing team:
“With the incredible growth of the foundation, as well as the acquisition of partners in over 10 countries in Africa, and the subsequent demands on the team, we are extremely happy that someone like Colin, with such a wealth of experience in building and growing a mobile business will be joining us.”
We asked Colin a few questions by way of introduction to the Praekelt Foundation community and friends:
Colin, you have had over 20 years experience in the mobile industry, please share with us a couple of career highlights in the mobile development terrain that remain top of mind for you:
Vodacom
During my 8 years at Vodacom I was fortunate to be part of many exciting new projects and initiatives including the launch of 3G and MMS as well as being part of the first Blackberry launch in SA. As part of the product development team at Vodacom I was intimately involved in the development and commercial launch of USSD, the interactive menu service that today enables most of our citizens to gain access to essential information therefore improving the quality of their lives. The highlight of my time at Vodacom was heading up the team that launched the Vodafone Live! service that hosts Praekelt’s very successful Young Africa Live initiative.
Green Pencil
In 2008 I started Green Pencil Creative Solutions, a niche consulting firm offering services in the area of Product Life-cycle management and the conceptualization of mobile solutions - to date I’ve had the priveledge of working with a variety of customers including mobile operators, research institutions and NGOs.
RIM
During my short stay at RIM, the suppliers of the iconic BlackBerry solution, I worked with a variety of partners in developing new and exciting applications and solutions to further enhance the value proposition offered to customers.
As you know, The Praekelt Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that focuses on developing large-scale mobile platforms that improve lives and drive change. With your broad wealth of corporate experience, what attracted you to work for the Praekelt Foundation and in the not-for-profit mobile arena specifically?
I have had the privilege of working with Gustav on a number of initiatives during the last few years - seeing what the Foundation team managed to achieve in applying basic mobile technologies like SMS and USSD in improving the plight of the poor really inspired me. I share Gustav’s vision with regards to using mobile technologies in addressing known social needs - when the opportunity arrived for me to become part of the team I grabbed it with both hands
What is your view on mobile development in Africa in 2011 and why should the rest of the world take note?
Due to a lack of fixed line telecoms infrastructure in Africa, mobile phones are in most cases the only way that the majority of Africans can communicate with their families, community and the outside world. The natureof wireless solutions like GSM lends itself to be deployed fast, and with the introduction of the prepaid payment option, the power of connectivity isnow within the reach of most Africans. Being the primary means ofcommunication in Africa, the continent is driving the adoption of mobile-centric solutions to everyday problems.
Which are your top three markets to work with in Africa and why?
The three markets that stand out for me are Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana - Kenya is fast becoming Africa’s mobile silicon valley with a very active and vibrant mobile developer community, while Nigeria is exciting due to the huge size and potential of the market. Last but not least, Ghana offers well-run systems and processes, a highly educated workforce, a vibrant market and the same excitement you find in Nigeria with less of the infrastructure challenges.
What excites you about your new position and what do you hope to bring to the table?
I am very excited about the innovative and highly-scalable mobile delivery platforms developed by the Foundation’s technical team. I am looking forward to working with the team in identifying new areas where we can deploy these solutions, as well as exploring opportunities to further expand the value offered to disadvantaged individuals and communities.
Praekelt Foundation’s appointment reminder system, TxtAlert, was recognised as the winner of the 2011 Tech4Africa Innovation Award, at a ceremony in Johannesburg last night.
TxtAlert was one of 11 finalists nominated for this award. One of the other projects that the Praekelt Foundation is also very involved in, Project Masiluleke, was also a finalist, but this time, TxtAlert came out on top.
Says Gustav Praekelt, founder of Praekelt Foundation: “TxtAlert is such a simple but effective technology that really works. We are really excited about this award and for the potential to now scale up TxtAlert for other types of chronic illness reminders. Already, our PMTCT (prevention of mother to child transmission) project in partnership with UNICEF and the Department of Health in Kwazulu-Natal, is an example of the massive potential that TxtAlert holds”.
The Tech4Africa conference is happening in Johannesburg from 27 to 28 October.
TxtAlert is going to be presented to the audience as the winner of the Innovation Award, on 28 October.
Read more about Tech4Africa and the other finalists in the Innovation Awards.
Praekelt Foundation’s TxtAlert appointment reminder system now being used to help pregnant mothers in KwaZulu-Natal during their pregnancy and until their babies are 18 months old.
Monday 24 October was a great day for the improvement of maternal health in South Africa, when a new project was launched in KwaZulu-Natal - the province where almost 40% of the population - and therefore 40% of pregnant mothers, are HIV positive.
Praekelt Foundation is part of a consortium partners, including the Provincial Department of Health in KZN, UNICEF South Africa, and Virtual Purple, who are pioneering the use of SMS reminders through the TxtAlert system, to support mothers.
Says Marcha Neethling, Head of Operations for Praekelt Foundation: “The aim for this leg of the program, is to reach six thousand women in two districts in the province, but we don’t see this as a pilot - both government and UNICEF are really keen to see this scaled up as soon as possible.”
In her launch address, Ms Precious Robinson, PMTCT (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission) Manager for the National Department of Health told representatives and stakeholders that the fight against the thousands of unnecessary maternal deaths, and the unnecessary transmission of HIV from mothers to babies, begins with “I”. She challenged all stakeholders - including Department of Health staff - to “shape up, or ship out”.
In the photo, from left to right, are the project partners:
Warren - Virtual Purple
Josephine - National Department of Health
Precious - National Department of Health
Sanjana - UNICEF South Africa
Otty - Provincial Department of Health (KZN)
Marcha - Praekelt Foundation
Earlier this year Praekelt Foundation released the recapitulated results of a groundbreaking Youth Sex Survey, conducted on its YoungAfricaLive mobile platform, that gives fascinating insight into the sexual behaviour and beliefs of South Africa’s youth.
Following the interest in the results, Praekelt Foundation decided to make public the full poll results.
Based on over 50 revealing questions and over 138 954 frank responses, the YoungAfricaLive Youth Sex Survey reveals that whilst South Africa’s youth are unquestionably sexually active (44%), they have strong views on the role of HIV/AIDS in sexual encounters, and the survey showed that 81% of respondents think that South Africans are having sex too young.
Says Debbie Rogers, lead strategist for Praekelt Foundation: “The polls in this survey are often asked within the context of an article on the portal and are therefore an interesting indication of the potential for behaviour change that is inherent in the YoungAfricaLive portal. As the community continues to grow beyond the 450,000 strong members whom are currently on the portal we aim to investigate a number of alternative, more scientific, studies which will investigate the affects of the portal in promoting behaviour change in the users”.
The Canadian Queen’s School of Business picked Praekelt Foundation as their partner of choice for the Global Business Project.
Consisting of 7 MBA students from Queens University in Toronto, the group will donate 500 hours of work to help us build out our YoungAfricaLearn concept, into a fully-fledged mLearning solution for South Africa.
YoungAfricaLearn is a mobile community where young people can engage with educational content. Gamification will play a key role in making sure that users engage with content that is learning focused and that content is delivered in a way that encourages ongoing engagement and behaviour change.
Queen’s School of Business is one of the world’s premier business schools, with a faculty team renowned for its business experience and academic credentials. Business Week magazine has ranked Queen’s EMBA program as the #1 program in Canada and #25 globally.
The global project is the capstone of the Queen’s Executive MBA program. It is a team based, team directed deliverable, mandated in developing an understanding of a substantive, existent international business challenge or opportunity within an organization. The project must involve clients in a country outside of North America and will result in a recommended course of action for consideration by the selected organization’s senior management. The analysis will include a field study component, lasting a minimum of five days.
Says Amita O’Gill, Client Relationship lead: “We chose to work with the Praekelt Foundation for using technology and social media in a unique way to educate individuals living in poverty. We are passionate about helping out an intiative which educates the youth of South Africa.”
The goal of the project is to provide value for the client by applying the their unique business experience in combination with the tools, techniques and methodologies learned in the Queen’s EMBA program.