PopTech : Blog : World AIDS Day 2009: An Update on PopTech's Project Masiluleke

World AIDS Day 2009: An Update on PopTech's Project Masiluleke

Leetha Filderman ( Bio / Posts ) | Tuesday, December 01, 2009 UTC

Editor’s note: Leetha Filderman is the Director of the PopTech Accelerator. For World AIDS day today, she gives an update on Project Masiluleke, the collaborative PopTech mobile health project. More details in these Project Masiluleke videos and look for more updates on this blog in coming months.

Project Masiluleke, a signature program of the PopTech Accelerator, has been sending HIV/AIDS awareness messaging in South Africa since October 1, 2008. Designed as a large-scale mobile health initiative, the project has been making steady strides since its launch at PopTech 2008.

Today, and every day, the project sends about 1 million Please Call Messages (PCMs) throughout South Africa, directing citizens to the National AIDS Helpline for advice, support, counseling and referral to HIV/AIDS services in their community.

Project Masiluleke

In partnership with African-based mobile service provider, MTN, Project Masiluleke has tagged 329,362,518 PCMs since its launch at PopTech 2008. These PCMs have been instrumental in driving over 1.2 Million calls to the National Aids Helpline over the past 13 months.

In addition to the “call to action” PCM phase of Project Masiluleke, we are expanding TxtAlert, a text message-based appointment reminder system that reminds patients of clinic appointments and other types of treatment reminders. Based on the early success of pilot projects using Txt Alert, Edendale Hospital – one of the largest public hospitals in South Africa – will implement TxtAlert in the HIV Antiretroviral and TB clinics in the early part of next year.

While mass messaging and treatment reminders have made an impact, the AIDS epidemic continues to cause enormous suffering and premature loss of life throughout South Africa and many other parts of the world. Globally, the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS prevents millions from learning their HIV status or connecting to treatment early in the course of infection.

In the coming year, project partners will continue to actively explore and test a breakthrough distributed diagnostics model: low cost HIV self-testing backed by mobile counseling support. The concept of self-testing has been greeted with enthusiasm by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health, the South African HIV Clinicians Society, and other leaders in global healthcare. And the most important endorsement of our work comes from those facing the realities and challenges of AIDS on a daily basis. Feedback from focus groups of high-risk men consistently confirm that individuals are eager to have access to HIV self-test kits, prefer mobile interactions over face-to-face counseling and feel empowered by the ability to test privately. We will keep all of you posted as this work progresses!

The work of Project Masiluleke exemplifies PopTech’s commitment to creating impact through highly collaborative, cross-sector partnerships. For over three years our core partners – iTeach, Praekelt Foundation and frog design – have worked with us to explore and create innovative approaches in response to the challenges of HIV/AIDS and TB. We are also grateful for the support of MTN South Africa for extending their commitment to the Project Masiluleke for a second year.

To learn more about Project Masiluleke please visit the Project Masiluleke section of the PopTech site.

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Comments

Name: Naturalnews.com

When Brent Leung started showcasing his groundbreaking new documentary film about AIDS, "House of Numbers" (www.HouseOfNumbers.com), he had no way to comprehend the wave of defamatory attacks that would be unleashed against him. Promoters of conventional AIDS theories (with all their vaccines and pharmaceuticals) have gone on a rampage against Leung, calling him an "AIDS denialist" — with an obvious invocation of the similar-sounding "Holocaust denialist" phrase.

The implication, of course, is that if you deny any part of conventional AIDS theories, you’re as bad as a Nazi war criminal. It’s a curious comparison, especially given that the origins of the modern pharmaceutical industry are found precisely in the Nazi regime where pharmaceutical scientists routinely conducted medical experiments on Jewish prisoners. As a fascinating matter of historical fact, the Chairman of Bayer in the 1950’s (yes, the same Bayer that makes Bayer Aspirin) was Dr. Fritz ter Meer, a convicted war criminal, who after committing crimes against humanity was sentenced to seven years in prison at the Nuremberg war trials.

The pharmaceutical industry operating today is largely a cabal of unindicted criminals who are guilty of crimes against humanity, and one of their favorite methods of multiplying their profits is to push a disease, then sell a vaccine they claim "treats" the disease. It’s the same old scam, whether we’re talking about cervical cancer, swine flu or even AIDS.

Getting back to Brent Leung and his film House of Numbers, when the AIDS-pharma promoters saw his film, they knew they had to attack the messenger and try to discredit him as quickly as possible. So they claimed Leung quoted the scientists in the film out of context, thereby distorting what they were saying. In particular, Leung was attacked for his interview with Dr. Luc Montagnier, the Nobel Prize-winning co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, who explained to Leung during the interview that AIDS can be overcome (cured) with nutrition, and that the vaccine approach is entirely overblown.

Such an idea, of course, spells financial doom for drug companies and their cohorts, all of whom profit from the oft-repeated myth that "AIDS has no cure" and that only drugs can treat AIDS. So the critics went after Leung for daring to include Montagnier’s words in his documentary. One critic in particular, Jeanne Bergman from an "AIDS truth" website, claimed that Leung "sucker punched" Montagnier.

She also claimed Leung quoted Montagnier out of context and blamed him for asking "leading questions" by saying, "Montagnier does not spontaneously say in the film that a healthy diet will clear the virus. Leung asked leading questions and then presented a fragment of conversation out of context."

As you’ll soon see, Jeanne Bergman has no clue what she’s talking about. But that’s actually par for the course when it comes to the AIDS industry.

Name: Gin Mutya