Unitel supports "Born Free to Shine"
The First Lady of the Republic of Angola has set herself an ambitious goal: Ana Dias Lourenço wants to drastically reduce the rate of new HIV infections among babies in her country. She serves as patron of a large-scale health campaign bringing together the aid organization People in Need (PIN), the mobile network operator Unitel S.A., and CreaLog. Under the slogan "Born Free to Shine," HIV-positive mothers receive voice messages explaining how to prevent transmitting their HIV infection to their newborn. Unitel commissioned CreaLog to build the corresponding messenger service, which went live on December 16, 2021.
International AIDS prevention campaign initiated by OAFLAD
The current project is part of a UNAIDS-supported campaign run by the 'Organization of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD)' and its partners. Free to Shine - Africa United against Childhood HIV aims to harness the unique commitment and advocacy of First Ladies to strengthen political leaders' efforts in the fight against HIV among children in Africa.
The "Born Free to Shine" campaign has three goals:
reducing new HIV infections among women of childbearing age,
preventing the vertical transmission of HIV from mother to child,
ensuring appropriate treatment for children born with HIV.
Mobile health program expanded
Infant health is now at the center of the "Born Free to Shine" campaign - in Portuguese, "Nascer Livre para Brilhar." For Angola, the project extends the existing 'Mobile Health' program, which has supported around 9,000 HIV-positive women and their children since 2017. Its main goal is to improve families' knowledge of how to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child. This aligns closely with First Lady Ana Dias Lourenço's commitment, which she underscored with a clear statement: "I will do everything in my power to ensure that Angolan children are born free of HIV."
Developed by medical professionals - provided in multiple languages
Under an agreement with the Office of the First Lady, Unitel has committed to sending automated informational voice messages in Portuguese and the national languages Kwanhama and Chokwe to phone numbers previously registered for the project. These messages, developed with input from physicians and other experts, cover the period from pregnancy through the child's 24th month. In its first phase, the program will reach 10,400 mothers, 150 technicians at health centers, 150 traditional midwives, 100 NGO caregivers and technicians, and 11 hospitals in the provinces of Moxico, Cunene, and Luanda. First Lady Ana Dias Lourenço emphasized that she would like to see the project extended to all Angolan provinces in the future, and she called on all supporters to commit to this cause for the long term.
Why voice messages?
The illiteracy rate in Angola still stands at around 30 percent. Women in rural areas in particular have limited access to formal education. Voice messaging was therefore chosen as a solution that allows all population groups to take part. The messenger service also sends messages via SMS when subscribers cannot be reached by voice despite repeated attempts.
Unitel project manager Manuel Ebo underscores the initiative's importance: "It is a great pleasure for me to help lead this project, since it is an initiative of real social significance, focused on innocent children. It is a project aimed at saving lives. The First Lady of the Republic of Angola and everyone directly involved in this fight are grateful for this initiative, as it will ease the fight against the transmission of HIV to children."
Rezan Solmaz, CreaLog project manager at Unitel, is delighted with the successful implementation of the concept: "I work on many interesting projects in the field of automated customer services, but a solution like this, with such practical benefit for broad segments of the population, makes me especially proud!"
Successful launch with Customer Care portal back in 2009
The partnership between CreaLog and Unitel, Angola's largest mobile network operator with more than eleven million customers, has proven its worth in this project as well. Alongside a large service portal for customer care, a CreaLog mass-calling platform has been running successfully at Unitel since 2009.
Musical messages
In 2014, Unitel used the CreaLog platform to market exclusive, especially affordable smartphone packages aimed specifically at female customers during Angola's Women's Month. Unitel customers could also request three songs by the well-known artist Anselmo Ralph as a musical serenade via SMS and forward them to their loved one's phone.
E-Health
Since 2016, Unitel has rolled out several e-health initiatives on the CreaLog platform: more than 60 million SMS messages and over four million voice messages have been sent on topics such as 'Stop Malaria', 'COVID-19', and 'road safety'. Since 2017, dynamic voice messages in the national languages Portuguese and Umbundu have been sent for the 'Mobile Midwife' project. These messages contain important information for the mother and her newborn, ranging from hygiene and nutrition tips to reminders about the baby's next medical check-up.
Mobile voting for talent show
In 2018, the talent show "Estrelas ao Palco" (Stars on Stage) was successfully launched, allowing viewers to vote by phone, SMS, and the 'Idolos Angola' app. The system processes 2,000 SMS messages per second and up to 2,100 simultaneous voice calls.
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