The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour, Youth and Manpower development under the Safeguarding Young People Programme recently launched the Tune-Me mobile site (mw.tuneme.org) for Malawian Youth to have access to sexual reproductive health information. The site allows young people ask questions on relationships; find out information on the best options of family planning methods as well as facts about HIV and AIDS and many more.
In an effort to reach out to more young people, the build up to the launch started three days earlier through a road trip outreach campaign from Zomba to Lilongwe; a distance of about 230 kilometres while making stops at various trading centres to engage young people on how to access information from the Tune Me mobile site. The launch itself had a significant amount of young people in attendance, some of which who took part in role plays, quizzes and performed songs concerning sexual reproductive health information and services. There were also several music performances from young musicians with songs that promote the Tune-Me mobile site as well as encouraging fellow young people to make appropriate reproductive health choices.
More than half of Malawi’s population is below 35 years old and about 46% are below 15 years old. Access to sexual and reproductive health information among young people still remains low in Malawi while mobile phone penetration is on the increase. Therefore, providing sexual reproductive health information for youth as those provided by the Tune-Me site is vital to allow young people make appropriate decisions concerning their sexual lives and ultimately contribute to realizing their potential in future.
