Providing HIV/AIDS Education Through Mobile Games
From Shareideas
As part of its Freedom from HIV/AIDS project, ZMQ Software Systems designed four mobile games to educate the public about HIV/AIDS and prevention measures. The project was launched in India and is now expanding to Africa.
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Story
To increase HIV/AIDS education and awareness, ZMQ Software, a gaming and e-learning company based in New Delhi, India, created four mobile games. The games are free and are part of the company's Freedom HIV/AIDS project, designed to bring HIV/AIDS awareness to more than 50 million people worldwide through mobile technology.
The project was launched on December 1, 2005 in India. Within a year, over 10 million game sessions had been downloaded.
One game, called Safety Cricket, features balls in the form of safety symbols such as condoms and a faithful partner. Team members must protect themselves from risks such as infected syringes. In the “Quiz with Babu” game, a young boy invites users to test their knowledge of HIV/AIDS from a database of questions.
On December 1, 2006, Freedom HIV/AIDS partnered with Hivos, a leading Dutch development organization, to expand the mobile phone game initiative. Through the resulting "Africa Reach Program," the mobile games are being adapted, using local characters and stories, for use in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Namibia. In addition to English, the mobile games for HIV/AIDS awareness are being launched in Kiswahili.
How they did it
ZMQ developed the games free of charge and is cooperating with Reliance, one of India’s major mobile operators, to make the games available for at no charge on its channel. The games are now being offered to other mobile channels.
Technology used
ZMQ develops games across a range of mobile platforms and technologies such as WAP, SMS, J2ME, BREW, Symbian, Flash Lite 1.1, Pocket PC and Palm OS. The games are designed for a variety of devices from basic Java Phones to Smart phones and pocket PCS. In designing a game, ZMQ’s methodology for designing a game includes user interactivity, flexibility, competition, excitement, reality, and usability.
