Don’t Tune Us, we’ll Tune You
Praekelt Foundation launches a mobile-optimised youth platform in Zambia with the simple objective of saving the world. Kind of.
by Tamsen de Beer, Head of Content, Praekelt Foundation
Isaac Chunda heads up Ndola Youth Resource in Lusaka and is one of our partners on Tune Me, a brand new mobile platform for youth in Zambia. He laughs hard when he finds out that Tune Me is South African slang. He says: ‘Hahahhaah! We used to use that phrase when I was in school ten years ago! Now it’s a famous phrase used by our modern youth to mean tell me!’
Famous in Durban, Jo’burg, Cape Town north of the boerewors curtain - and also in Zambia, even 2933,5 kms further north? What a journey for two little words! How did this happen?
In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell compares the dissemination of information within cultures to the spread of epidemics. He presents a metaphor between social and pathogenic epidemics. But all epidemics need a mode of transmission to spread. Gladwell's "Law of the Few" explains that a very select group of people is responsible for the "tipping" of almost all social epidemics. These three unique groups of people are special for their incredible abilities to communicate, teach, and persuade.
Was it just a few young people who carried these two words ‘Tune Me’ so far, to youth cultures in cities as different as Durban and Lusaka? We certainly believe that just a few persuasive voices can make a difference. We’re looking for a few more!
Tune Me launched in Zambia on October 5th in partnership with UNFPA and the Ford Foundation. It is accessible to anyone with an internet connection and a phone – from the most basic handset all the way up to the latest smartphone. Tune Me provides essential sexual and reproductive health and rights information to adolescents and youths and connects them to youth-friendly services and sexual health experts with real answers.
It has an urgent imperative: be the tipping point. The site must impact the choices made by young Zambians between the ages of 10 and 24. Globally, this age-group makes up one quarter of the world’s population. Their reproductive choices will shape future demographic trends.
The demographic dividend theory holds that when the share of the working-age population (15 to 64) is larger than the non-working-age share of the population (14 and younger and 65 and older), there is a boost in economic productivity. A country with both increasing numbers of young people and declining fertility has the potential to reap the demographic dividend. Due to the dividend between young and old, many argue that there is a great potential for economic gains. In order for economic growth to occur the younger population must have access to quality education, adequate nutrition and health including access to sexual and reproductive health.
Never in the history of the planet has there been a youth population that tips the scale like it does today. On one hand, the massive potential of an economic force young and strong enough to carry us into the future. On the other; very real challenges. And this is where Tune Me comes in: in Zambia alone, more than one in seven adults is living with HIV. Unwanted pregnancies, STIs including more HIV infections, child marriage and dangerous childbirth, sexual violence and transactional sex compromise the potential of our continent’s future workforce. It’s our obligation to find ways to reap the rewards of the demographic dividend.
Tune Me won’t use words like ‘demographic dividend’. It talks about love, sex and relationships in an open and honest way and invites readers to share their personal stories navigating this tough terrain. It starts a conversation that sparks a question that leads to an answer that could make all the difference to a few young people who could make all the difference to a few more. Can Tune Me be a tipping point? Stay tuned* to find out.
*You’ll forgive this last pun, won’t you?
