Mobile Q&A Service on Sexual Health Launched in Mali

The event was held at the Cité des Enfants – the Children’s City – in Bamako

Image by OneWorld

The launch event drew close to 500 attendees and featured poetry readings and musical performances by young singers and rappers. In addition to youth from different neighborhoods of Bamako, the nation's capital, guests included representatives from the Ministries of Education, Youth, and Social Development, Oxfam Mali, OneWorld, local partner organizations, and other groups active in the fields of health, education, and youth empowerment.

Broadcast on national television, the two-hour long show and news of the launch reached thousands of youth around the country. The shortcode, 35155, is a special number that mobile phone users can send SMS to for free, connecting Malian youth to trained counselors specialized in sexual and reproductive health (SRH). This innovative mobile question-and-answer service, locally known as WeleliAdo, is part of the InfoAdo - Apprendre a Vivre Mali program (meaning Info for Adolescents - Learning about Living Mali) that OneWorld launched in Mali earlier this year.

Adam Dicko, Vice President of National Network of Peer Educators, emphasized the importance of such a service when she told OneWorld, "As I'm a girl, like all girls in Mali, we're confronted with gender discrimination... and we have a lot of concerns about sexual and reproductive health too... To discuss our lives with our parents - that's rare, and it's something young people need. Maybe you'll go to a clinic where they can give you the information you need, but the person in the clinic is older, so you're ashamed to talk to them about certain things. But via the telephone, I think that most young people would engage."

OneWorld’s project coordinator in Mali with the rappers Master Soumi and Minta.

Image by OneWorld

OneWorld's acquisition of the shortcode, following nearly a year of negotiations with local telecommunications companies and government bodies, represents a major success, not least for young Malians. Since the service opened in April 2013, over 3,000 questions have been received to date from around the country and more than one-third of these were sent following the official launch of the code. Ongoing publicity for WeleliAdo will ensure that these numbers continue to rise over the coming years.

Access to confidential, accurate, and non-judgmental information is fundamental to promoting young people's health, rights, and gender equality, particularly in a country where social and religious norms mean that SRH issues are highly taboo. The evident need for such information in Mali is what motivated OneWorld to implement the InfoAdo program in the West African nation.

In addition to the mobile service, which is managed and staffed by the Malian Association for the Protection and Promotion of the Family (AMPPF), InfoAdo Mali also entails an interactive eLearning environment, entitled ClickInfoAdo, and a radio component, Radio InfoAdo.

ClickInfoAdo was design by OneWorld's creative partner Butterfly Works together with the African Network for Education and Health (NGO RAES), and provides young people with a safe and dynamic source of reliable SRH information, circumventing the social taboos that often preclude discussion about such topics.

The community radio component, Radio InfoAdo, allows OneWorld to reach the maximum number of youth in both urban and rural areas by broadcasting thematic shows on themes such as sexuality, puberty and physical changes, and family planning.

The development of these radio programs by and for youth also builds young people's technological capacities at a time when ICT skills play an increasingly important role in various aspects of people's lives, from social interaction to employment opportunities to political participation and influence.