Aimed at South Africans aged between 10 and 24, the interactive digital platform encourages holistic youth development in order to equip young people with important tools to help them navigate life. Ultimately, the platform is about driving behaviour change in order to promote sexual and reproductive health.

“Over the last 16 years we have done innovative work with young people in order to bring down HIV infections, but we need to work hard to remain relevant, we need to find new ways of doings things. And the opportunity to create that change is here,” says loveLife CEO Grace Matlhape.

The opportunity Matlhape is talking about is the explosive growth of mobile phones in South Africa and the resulting surge in the number of people with internet access. Added to this growth is the massive uptick in engagement on social media platforms via mobile devices, particularly among younger users.

loveLife already engages with 1.5 million young people a year through a network of community activators who implement face-to-face interventions. Moving into the digital sphere means they can make their knowledge and expertise accessible to millions more.

Funded by the German government, the iloveLife.mobi development team, led by Matlhape, loveLife strategist Scott Burnett and head of digital Jade Archer have designed a web-based software programme for all mobile devices, including basic cellphones.

Using the sites different features earns users points. Points are awarded for setting up a profile, taking self-assessments, quizzes, reading and watching articles and videos, taking polls and sharing on Facebook.

iloveLife also makes getting tested easier. Apart from helping users understand why knowing their HIV status is so important, the mobi site also pinpoints the nearest youth friendly clinics, and gives users the opportunity to rate the services once they’ve been – for more points, of course.

Mobile development specialists Thumbtribe programmed the site to be light on data and responsive to the user’s need. iloveLife also encourages young users to complete “Keeping it Real” activities; attending loveLife events, festivals and visiting a clinic or taking preventative tests regularly scores even more points.

These point can win users desirable prizes like clothing store shopping vouchers. Incentives and conditional rewards programmes have been successfully applied worldwide across education, social welfare and health care. The overwhelming global success of incentive programmes together with loveLife’s insights into young South Africans is stirring up a lot of optimism for the potential of iloveLife.

iloveLife is looking at attracting one million young people in the first two years with 160 000 actively engaged users earning points. iloveLife will also be tracking the number of HIV tests that can be attributed to the site with an aim to have 500 000 young people take HIV tests by June 2017.

The site will also provide users with first-hand assistance. Help buttons are scattered throughout the site and clicking on it sends an immediate ‘Please Call Me’ to trained counsellors at loveLife’s dedicated youth line.

“Nothing like this has ever been done before,” says Matlhape. “And it’s all about young people. iloveLife.mobi is about a young person’s leadership development journey and a path to greatness, it’s about giving them real rewards for taking action in the real world… it’s about making their lives better in every way.”

For more information, visit www.lovelife.org.za. Alternatively connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.