MTN South Africa Using SMS to Spread Information about HIV/AIDS

If you’ve spent any time using an MTN phone in Africa, you’ve gotten the ubiquitous “Please Call Me” SMS that means someone would like to talk to you, but doesn’t want to pay for the airtime to have the conversation. The messages are short—just one line that tells the reader that XX-XX-XX-XX phone number would like you to call them back.

MTN South Africa has partnered with Project Masiluleke (Project M) to use the remaining characters in the SMS message to promote HIV/AIDS awareness. Messages that encourage people to get tested for HIV and direct users to testing and treatment centers are broadcast in English and other languages.

Since Project M was launched in October last year:

• MTN South Africa has tagged about 230 million messages with HIV messages in English, Zulu, Xhosa, Sesotho, Tswana and Sepedi. Zulu messages have outperformed English, guiding future deployment.
• The National AIDS Helpline has received close to 1 million calls.
• TxtAlert technology will soon be piloted.   

MTN currently offers 1 million “Please Call Me” messages a day to Project M. Project M will soon launch a second phase which will send automated SMSs to patients on ARVs to remind them of their clinical visits.

(via Gadget)