SMS Jovem Project
Create material conditions for young people to make their voices heard and for them to understand and talk about the current issues they consider most important.
“Any society that fails to harness the energy and creativity of its young people will be left behind”. Kofi Annan
This simple sentence contains an unavoidable truth: young people are the main vehicle for social and economic transformation of any society. In the case of Angola, where people between 0 and 24 years of age represent 65% of the population, it gains an urgency dimension, a real challenge to which the Government of Angola responded with the implementation of SMS Jovem, a project that will help young people to make their main concerns reach the people who make decisions.
Launched on December 5th, at the Casa da Juventude of Viana, in a partnership between the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MINJUD), UNFPA and UNICEF, SMS Jovem is a written messaging service, supported by the U-Report platform created by UNICEF in 2007. SMS Jovem allows any young person to send SMS with the problems that concern them, such as health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene, youth unemployment, HIV / AIDS and epidemic outbreaks.
Edna Cazengue is one of the counselors who will work at the center where messages from young people will be processed. Due to his experience at Casa da Juventude, he understands that the possibility of sending text messages about sensitive subjects and receiving a real-time response can make a difference, especially to young people who cannot access counseling centers or other types of accompaniment. “It is a project that will increase inclusion”, concluded the young counselor, who expects a massive participation of young people.
For the Angolan government, joining this initiative means taking an important step to reduce shortages such as the lack of spaces where young people can confidentially access free and reliable information on sexual and reproductive health, domestic violence and HIV / AIDS. The Angolan Youth and Sports Minister, Ana Paula do Sacramento Neto, was optimistic in the act of launching the platform, regarding the impact of SMS Jovem on the capacity of the “Government to listen to young people and with them to identify the ideal mechanisms to solve the problems that they will present us”.
With the support of the operator UNITEL, the platform also allows sending surveys and SMS alerts to the registered young people, with the data being published anonymously on the platforms of the Government and its civil society partners.
