Mobile technology improves quality of life for HIV positive people

Mobile phones are an asset for communicating health issues in Mexico, where a group of forty people -- some living with HIV and Aids -- have been able to interact with each other through group messaging, offering advice on medication and other HIV related issues that they face on their daily lives.

This was shared in a mini talk about the use of group messaging for social change, delivered by Anne Kidd at the MobileActive08 conference in Johannesburg. Kidd has been running a project called Zumbido, which aims at improving the quality of life of those living with HIV and Aids through mobile technology. This project particularly focuses on tackling the negative health effects of social isolation.

Forty participants from rural and urban areas of Jalisco in Mexico were broken down into groups of ten and were given mobile phones so they could communicate simultaneously, therefore making them feel like they were part of a community. These participants used group messaging to encourage their fellow members who had previously given up medication, to re-start taking their medication. This made these participants empowered consumers of mobile technology and their diverse experiences and backgrounds encourage problem sharing and the acquisition of new knowledge, particularly in the area of access to services and medical treatment.

In the end, the Zumbido project helped improve participants’ emotional states dramatically, and feelings of isolation, depression and anxiety were reduced significantly. Through Zumbido, mobile technology managed to reach the rural population, which often becomes isolated technologically. Mobile technology also enabled responses to the immediate needs of participants and acted as an empowerment tool to those participants who had never used mobile phones.

The project also successfully expanded social networks of participants and changed participants’ perspectives on what it means to be living with HIV and Aids, due to the diversity of experiences and viewpoints of the participants in the groups. It also created space to talk about other issues such as religion, sexuality, gender, class and discrimination.