August 24, 2009
Mobile messaging network counsels Cape Town drug users
A South African instant messaging network which has often been vilified for aiding drug pushers is now being used to provide counselling for drug addicts and people with HIV. New Scientist reports.
MXit is an extremely popular peer-to-peer network in South Africa that runs on cellphones, with 12.5 million users across the country, it's far more than the 4.5 million who have access to broadband.
The network's popularity has meant drug pushers have used it to target schoolchildren. "They get constant bad press - like drug deals being made over it, and people getting kidnapped, stuff like that," says Paul Scott of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Cape Town. "We decided to use that technology for good things," says Scott.
The Drug Abuse Support (DAS) service in Cape Town combined Chisimba and MXit to build a portal through which anyone with a cellphone and a MXit subscription can chat to a counsellor just as if they were connecting to Google Talk. The request is handled by one of eight counsellors, who chat using their desktops from a DAS centre in the township of Mitchell's Plain, Cape Town.
... Counselling is also being offered to HIV patients, who need information about, say, when to take their anti-retroviral drugs. Currently, the service is run by volunteers with support from the UWC, and is limited to the Cape Town region.
Read full article.
Image from Ken Banks at Kiwanja.net
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