Mobiles for child protection and for AIDS education

Two  examples of mobile phones being used are the  AJEDI-Ka/Projet Enfants Soldats which aims to monitor the rights violations and improve child protection in Eastern DRC"  The project operates in 15 high risk villages in the Uvira region.

Through the project, Ajedi-Ka distributed 15 cell phones, one to each VCCP (Village Committees for Child Protection) and two phones to Ajedi-Ka staff in Uvira. These cellular phones were used to relay information on child rights violations from the VCCPs to Ajedi-Ka staff. A 24-hour telephone call-in service was established to enable VCCP members to place a call at any time to report a violation as soon as possible after it occurred.

Once the violation has been logged in Uvira, Ajedi-Ka staff returned the phone call to the VCCP member – at no cost to the VCCP cellular user. According to the organisers, this minimised expense at the grassroots level. Once the information was relayed, it was stored and decisions were made about whether further verification was needed in order to document the case. According to the organisers, the cellular technology allowed the VCCPs to quickly report violations and make decisions about verification while avoiding dangerous and cumbersome bicycle travel, which they had previously relied on.

The second eample comes from  Eastern Europe and Central Asia, mobile phones have been used to distribute a 20 minute long film on AIDS awareness. The film was divided into 5 parts and each part sent out to subscribers who in turn would be able to forward the film on to others and so on.   The film called "The Morning After" 

focuses on the real lives of young people - the situations, problems, and dilemmas they face. The film does not have a concrete message; rather, it is a story about the everyday life of young people that highlights what might put them at risk for contracting HIV/AIDS.