Youth Spot app digitises services
Katlego Isaacs | Sunday July 24, 2022 06:00
Sponsored by USAID, Botswana-Baylor, Unicef and Stepping Stone International, the Youth Spot app, which was officially launched on Thursday, is a massive collaborative effort to bring various support and counselling services closer to the youth who would otherwise be reluctant to use such services in person.
In recognition of the apprehension many of the youth have towards actively seeking assistance in regards to major issues affecting the youth such as HIV, the Youth Spot app provides anonymous support chat rooms, professional virtual counsellors, and live news feed updates on issues regarding the youth.
Beyond that, the app also provides a customisable ARV medication tracker, mood trackers for depression and personal lifestyle quizzes. These services are all in line with existing services offered by the sponsors of the app, with the benefit of being virtual.
Speaking at the official launch of the app, the executive director of Botswana-Baylor, Dr Mogomotsi Matshaba said the app will be the stepping stone that gets the youth to seek the assistance they need in regards to HIV testing and maintaining prescribed medication intake.
“We know generally that adherence rates among adolescents with HIV are lower than adults with HIV, so having a platform like this will actually support them because when it’s time for them to take their medication they will take their medication because the reminder is in their face”, Matshaba said.
“It will again facilitate for them honouring their appointments with doctors, clinicians, social workers, or psychologists because they are able to set all of their reminders via the platform,” he added.
UNICEF deputy representative, Alexandra Illmer, said the app was designed not only with the youth in mind, but with the youth being the primary developers of the platform inputting their personal opinions and recommendations into the development of the app. “Young people were part and parcel in developing the platform with their opinions and considerations being the most important driving forces in moulding the app,” Illmer said.
“In our conversations with young people living with HIV, we found that many of them were facing shared challenges with the rest of their peers from mental health issues to unemployment and this app aims to bridge the gap between them and offer a shared collective safe space to all discuss their issues,” she said. Capacity Building Advisor in USAID's Office of HIV/AIDS, Kenneth Sklaw, added that this app fulfils many of the aims of the D.R.E.A.M.S programme in a more accessible method to the youth.
“D.R.E.A.M.S means working with girls on social access building and on leading them in goal setting and decision making on their livelihood and economic decisions. It also provides young people with the opportunity to link with the business sector, and with the rate of youth unemployment that will be an essential component,” Sklaw said. “Youth Spot will be a tool where the youth can communicate with other youth.
This will be a platform where the youth can make their own decisions and make their own goals to follow through. The chat rooms will serve as a safe space to learn from each other and navigate through tough issues,” he added.
Naturally concerns over the accessibility of the app to those who really need it were presented to the teams associated with the app in cognisance of the fact only 64% of Batswana have access to the Internet according to the World Bank. The Ministry of Communication, Knowledge, and Technology (MoCKT) in conjunction with the Botswana Digital and Innovation Hub (BDIH), however, assured the public that the government is aggressively working towards delivering high speed and affordable internet to even the most remote villages.
Acting CEO of BDIH, Tshepo Tsheko, stated that the current ‘SmartBots’ programme has already laid out extensive optic fibre lines across the country, but the project is now in its last mile to deliver greater connectivity to allow the youth to access information such as the knowledge offered by Youth Spot. “Our SmartBots programme is an aggressive strategy to bring high speed internet to all areas of the country. We have already connected over 160 villages to high speed Internet lines in phase one of this project, and phase two will seek to cover every single village left in the country, even the most remote,” Tsheko said. The permanent secretary of the MoCKT said Internet connectivity is an essential aspect of building a 'reservoir of knowledge' on the Youth Spot app that serves the youth in a productive and sustainable manner. The app is currently available for download on Stepping Stone International's primary website.