An InternetBased Peer Community Dedicated to Health Information Created by Youth in Dakar, Senegal'

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Health Communication via New Media

• An Internet-Based Peer Community Dedicated to
  Health Information Created by Youth in Dakar,
  Senegal.

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Case Purpose

• In resource-limited environments, such as
  Senegal, digital media strategies can be an
  effective and innovative method to reinforce
  attitude and behavior change, especially for
  youth populations

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• French is official language
• Wolof and Poular widely
• spoken
• 12.8 million inhabitants
• 43 of population is under
• 14 years of age (US - 20)
• Life expectancy - 59 years
• (US - 78 years)
• Land area slightly smaller
• than South Dakota
• Per capita - 1,800
• (US - 48,000)

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Réseau Africain de lEducation pour la
Santé(African Network for Health Education)

• Project RAES
• Initiated in 2003 by Senegalese President
  Abdoulaye Wade
• Reduce digital divide all the while promoting
  healthy behaviors
• Strong partnerships between international
  universities and training centers, members of the
  civil societies and renowned experts

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RAES

• RAES mandate is to use new methods and new
  technologies to promote health information and
  communication among Senegalese.
• To accomplish this, RAES must train youth and
  other professionals to actively use new
  technologies for communication and information
  purposes to reduce the digital divide and promote
  health.
• Proven effective, their promise is the expansion
  of lessons learned to other Francophone and
  Anglophone Sub-Saharan countries.

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Keewu

• Information and communication technologies for
  health
• Platform for health discussions
• Chronic and Infectious Diseases
• Malaria
• HIV/AIDS
• Lead poisoning
• Cancer
• Diabetes

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HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa

• Of the 33 million people living with HIV in the
  world today, over 22 million reside in
  sub-Saharan Africa (67 of total cases)
• 2.7 million annual incident cases in 2007, 1.9
  million of which occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Over 1 billion US Dollars from the President's
  Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) alone for
  prevention and treatment efforts

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HIV/AIDS in Senegal

• In Senegal nearly 18 million was spent on the
  fight against HIV in 2007 - 50 increase from the
  previous year
• However, for all of these efforts, the battle
  against HIV/AIDS still presents many challenges.
• A 2005 national survey demonstrated that only 22
  of youth aged 15 24 were able to correctly
  identify means of preventing HIV transmission and
  reject major misconceptions about transmission

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HIV trend among Senegalese youth

• Increase in prevalence from 2005 to 2007
• Among youth aged 15 24 years
• HIV prevalence has increased from 0.1 and 0.5
  to 0.3 and 0.8 in males and females,
  respectively

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RAES
Mission promote health education among the
Senegalese through the medium of information and
communications technology (ICT)
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Program Goal and Key Participants

• Improve the response to HIV/AIDS in the school
  environment by
• Promoting communication for behavioral change
• Engaging youth in an active role against
  discrimination, stigmatization and to promote
  human rights
• RAES - digital/technology capacity
• SIDA Service - HIV/AIDS
• ASPROCIDE - human rights and development
• Open Society of West Africa (OSIWA) - financial
  support

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Program Objectives

• Strengthen capacities of teachers and students
  to develop HIV/AIDS related web sites (as well as
  other health issues) and digital media content
• Assist students in developing HIV/AIDS education
  contents using digital media
• Develop and conduct a communication campaign for
  behavior change with contents developed by
  students
• Showcase content nationally and internationally
  and advocate for youth active role in the fight
  against HIV/AIDS, discrimination, stigmatization
  and for human rights

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Innovative Nature

• Project will allow students to
• Contribute to the communication process directed
  to limit their risk behaviors
• Improve human rights in schools and family
  environment
• Fight against discrimination and stigmatization
• Project will at the same time achieve the
  objective of reducing the digital divide
• Teaching and helping students to develop
  E-projects that will be showcased in Senegal and
  in the world.

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Personnel

• Recruited from Dakar
• Video Editor
• Sound Engineer
• Journalist
• Webmaster
• Helped participating students learn skills needed
  to effectively create original digital content

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Problem-based Learning

• Stresses the effectiveness of a participatory
  learning environment
• Allows students to produce knowledge rather than
  merely receive it
• Students must
• Identify a problem
• Generate ideas
• Organize those ideas
• Attain learning needs and resources
• Manage those needs and resources
• Test their new knowledge
• Throughout the process, the instructor acted as a
  guide and provided support for students,
  furnishing necessary resources for learning
  skills

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Teacher Training

• Teachers participated in a three-day training
• Support student clubs when students returned to
  their school
• Bulk of the training period was devoted to
  learning how to use digital media tools
• Evaluation showed that teachers felt comfortable
  with the majority of the material learned
• Requested more training in sound editing and in
  uploading content to the Internet

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Student Participants

• Three Dakar high schools participated in the
  pilot program
• Two public schools Blaise Diagne, Parcelles
  Assainies
• One private school Sacré-Coeur
• Teachers from participating schools helped
  identify and recruit a total of 45 students (15
  students from each high school)
• Materials
• Field and studio microphones
• Mini disk recorders
• Video cameras and digital cameras
• Computer laboratory for uploading and editing

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Evaluation

• 36 of the 45 students invited to the training
  completed the pre-test questionnaire
• 27 completed the post-test questionnaire
• Nine students had other commitments and were not
  available for the post-test
• Evaluation instrument contained questions on
• Demographic information
• Knowledge of and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS and
  human rights
• Comfort level and competence using new
  technologies including journalism, video editing
  and audio editing
• Questionnaire also replicated questions from the
  formative research period of the study, which
  surveyed over 2,000 students in the three
  participating high schools about similar issues

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Table 1. Basic demographic description,
Intervention Population and Target Population,
Dakar, Senegal, 2008
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Pre-test N 36, Post-test N 27, Target
population N 2,174
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Table 2. Demographic Information, Intervention
Population and Target Population, Dakar, Senegal,
2008
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Never
Once a month
Once a week
Once a day
More than once a day
Figure 1. Internet Usage, Intervention Population
and Target Population, Dakar, Senegal, 2008 Pre
N36, Post N27, Global N2,174
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Table 3. HIV/AIDS attitudes and knowledge among
student participants
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Table 4. HIV/AIDS attitudes and knowledge among
student participants
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Table 5. Level of digital media skills
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Table 6. Level of digital media skills
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Sunu Kaddu Our Voice

• www.sunukaddu.com
• Videos
• Songs
• Blogs
• Articles
• Resources

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Digital Technologies in sub-Saharan Africa

• As digital technologies become more accessible to
  communities in sub-Saharan Africa, their targeted
  and appropriate use can help create a
  participatory environment for communities
• In resource-scarce environments such as Senegal
  and much of Africa, digital especially wireless
  technologies are more practical and sustainable
  than land based technology because they bypass
  costly and often limited infrastructure
  requirements

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Matam, Senegal
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Limitations Conclusions

• School-based interventions have had limited
  youth access in past (25-35 in Dakar attend high
  school)
• Internet may bridge this gap
• In Dakar, according to data collected during the
  formative research phase, 87 (n2089) of
  students know how to use a computer and 96
  indicated that they have access to a computer
• The greatest strength of the RAES approach is
  found in the nature of the intervention digital
  content created for and by youth through
  innovative media produces a competent, tailored
  and attractive message
• As improved technologies, particularly digital
  technologies, become more available throughout
  Africa, it is imperative that youth and young
  adults be trained in the appropriate use of such
  innovations.

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