Game4Life: Mobile games in AIDS education

HIV and AIDS has continued to impact communities and individuals differently and this can never be over-emphasised. For this reason organisations are coming up with different types of interventions in order to reduce the spread of the pandemic.

On Monday 13th October, at MobileActive08 I attended a mini talk on “Game4Life: Mobile games in AIDS education”, which was facilitated by Issmail Nnafie.

Games4Life is a programme being implemented in Kenya by Hivos in partnership with KPN, a Dutch telecom Company. The programme is aimed at creating better awareness of the dangers of HIV and  AIDS among 15-20 year old youngsters in Kenya through using mobile technology. It allows young people to learn and understand thedangers of HIV and AIDS by playing games on their mobile phones.

Currently Hivos is offering three cell phone games: a quiz game that provides  general information on HIV and AIDS in a question and answer format, and Java-based football and helicopter games.

The use of mobile phones to bring awareness of the dangers of HIV and AIDS comes as an alternative for young people who access entertainment Java games at high cost. On the other hand the Game4Life games are a new and creative way which most young people preferred to the traditional way of receiving health information in class sessions, on TV and radio.

The programme was well received by young people, such that when it was launched 12 000 young people subscribed for the quiz game and 200 downloaded the Java Game.

The programme is also facing challenges in that after the launch the number of downloads was high, but decreased shortly after that. Technology has also posed challenges in that some phones cannot play Java games. Hence the programme is focusing more on the quiz game.