The Secretariat of State for Youth and Employment (SEJE) signed in Maputo a Memorandum of Understanding with mobile operators, namely Tmcel, Vodacom and Movitel, in order to continue the operation of the SMS BIZ project, an initiative under the Government’s Generation BIZ Program.
The SMS BIZ is aimed at young people and adolescents and aims to promote counseling services, exchange of experiences and correct and credible information on sexual and reproductive health and HIV-AIDS prevention via SMS.
The meeting served to renew the agreements established in 2017, and whose validity expired this year, thus ensuring the continuity of the project for another five years through the provision of free SMS services by mobile operators.
On the occasion, the Secretary of State for Youth and Employment, Oswaldo Petersburg, expressed himself “satisfied” with the fact that the current number of teenagers and young people subscribing to the initiative is above 350,000, of which 64 percent are in the 10 to 24 age group, and 58 percent are male and 42 female.
“The SMS BIZ initiative was introduced in 2016, with the purpose of promoting, among Mozambican adolescents and youth, better opportunities for them to achieve their fundamental rights, starting with easy access to information and personalized counseling on sexual and reproductive health and the prevention of STI (Sexually Transmitted Infections) and HIV-AIDS infections, through technological tools,” he said.
The Secretary of State for Youth and Employment, as he highlighted, intends, through this platform, to occupy young people and bring to them other opportunities that the Government has related to entrepreneurship, technological innovation, and empowerment of girls, among others.
For the representative of one of the project’s partners, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Maria Luísa Fornara, “with the growing number of subscribers to the service offered by the SMS BIZ platform there was the need to install and equip more regional SMS BIZ Counseling Centers, with the passage of time, with the first Counseling Center being in Maputo city, the second in Quelimane city, and the last one in Nampula city.
“This geographical distribution allows the decentralization of the offer of personalized counseling services and ensures that the social norms of each region of the country are duly accepted and respected,” he added.
