This week, the mobile phone will be used in a peculiarly Kenyan initiative aimed at promoting an HIV/Aids awareness programme.

Young people participating in the programme are simply expected to play games on their mobile phones. The proponents of the project hope that as they play, the youths will also have a chance to get educated on vital HIV/ Aids issues.

The programme, being run by Mobile for Good (M4G), will be launched as the Games4Life Programme at the British Council on Friday. The project aims to reach out to the youth through mobile phone games.

The gadget is being taken as an innovative medium to educate them about HIV/Aids and to reinforce positive messages about healthy lifestyle choices. This is to be done in an upbeat and technology savvy way.

The objective of the Games4Life project is to make HIV/Aids information available to the youth via a medium that is readily available to them and that is fun to use. The games have been translated into English, Kiswahili and sheng.

M4G has led several other similar initiatives delivering vital health, employment and community content via SMS on mobile phones.

This helps in informing and empowering the disadvantaged as well as in bridging the digital divide. M4G says research carried out in Africa shows that it is the fastest-growing mobile phone market in the world, with an annual growth rate of 67 per cent.

Studies in Kenya show that a large proportion of the rural population has access to mobile phones, usually through sharing of handsets.

These figures suggest market need for delivery of information to marginalised communities.