Mobile service MyQuestion will enable young people to ask their personal questions through text messages, the website or through a free hotline. My Question is part of the e-learning programme Learning about Living .

It is free to send questions and receive answers by text message. The number, initially only available from MTN mobiles, is 38120. Other networks will be included shortly.

Learning about Living is an e-learning tool based on the Nigerian Family Life and HIV/AIDS Education (FLHE) curriculum. It will run on computers in schools in Nigeria and will introduce the students to creative computer skills. Learning about Living is made compatible for One Laptop Per Child and the Intel's Classmate PC project.

The highly interactive tool is developed by Butterfly Works, Netherlands, together with several Nigerian NGO's, the Ministry of Education in Nigeria and Oneworld UK.

"Educating young people is pivotal in the fight against AIDS in Nigeria, and when working with young people, it is important to do it in an engaging and exciting way that speaks to youth in the language they can grasp. Using information and communication technology (ICT) is doing just that," says Uju Ofomata, Project Manager of Learning about Living.

Learning about Living has three goals. Firstly, it aims to use ICT to educate young people on issues around adolescent reproductive health so that they can make informed decisions about their sexual health, prevent HIV/AIDS and maternal mortality and morbidity, and gender violence.

Secondly, the project aims to improve the information available on sex education to young people, and encourage them to be more open about these issues and forthcoming about their questions. Thirdly, Learning about Living aims to increase and improve gender equality by offering positive alternatives to existing beliefs that assume male superiority and contribute to an acceptance of gender based violence against women in the society.

The project is being piloted in three locations: Lagos, Cross Rivers State and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja in collaboration with local NGOs and State Ministries of Education.

Related to the mobile service My Question. Questions can be emailed to MyQ@learningaboutliving.com or asked on www.learningaboutliving.com/MyQ. Answers for mobile and email will usually be received within a few hours during the office hours of Monday to Friday 9.00-17.00, otherwise the following working day.  The phone hotline, 08027192780-2, is free from Celtel phones, and standard rates from other lines.


Keywords: development nigeria society education ict