How is your smartphone like HIV?

About this episode

Eric Kaduru and Julia Arnold discuss the challenges women face in accessing the internet through smartphones and draw parallels with HIV prevention strategies.

Eric Kaduru and Julia Arnold talk about why simply distributing phones doesn't help people--especially women--access the internet. After seeing free phones get broken, stolen, or cause men to punish women for owning phones, they needed a new plan. Instead, they talked about learning from HIV prevention campaigns in the 90s, demystifying something complex, and making learning accessible. Social norms are at least as important as technology. Soap operas, hip hop concerts, and talking to men are critical tools in opening up access to tech for women in Uganda, and worked better than free phones ever have.

People in this episode

Host: Emily Janoch

Guests: Eric Kaduru, Julia Arnold

Topics covered

• technology access
• gender issues
• HIV prevention
• social norms
• internet access
• education

Keywords

• smartphone
• HIV
• internet access
• women
• Uganda
• social norms
• education
• technology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: HIV

Places: Uganda

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