South Africa tries a novel method to promote HIV testing.

By Jesse Ellison

South Africans are no strangers to AIDS awareness campaigns. Billboards urging testing and posters promoting condoms and abstinence line the roadsides. They're there for good reason: the country has the highest incidence of HIV positive citizens of anywhere in the world; in some areas 40 percent of people are infected. But despite those numbers, and despite the campaigns, only about 2 percent of South Africans have ever even been tested. "There are a lot of campaigns out there, and a lot of different messages. But the messages are so generic," says digital media consultant Gustav Praekelt. "It's like, 'You must get tested.' Well, then what?" Praekelt's organization, the Praekelt Foundation, a South Africa-based non-profit that uses mobile technology to combat the impacts of poverty, is now trying an unlikely medium to make the message stand out: text messaging.