Text to Change (TTC) was founded in 2007 by Hajo van Beijma and Bas Hoefman and is based in the Netherlands and in Uganda. Since 2007 TTC has set up lots of projects with local partners across Africa and South America. TTC is driven by the belief that the cell phone is becoming more and more affordable and accessible, also at the poorest level of the population and among the youth. Access to information in the developing world is a well-known challenge. Text to Change plays a vital role in improving lives - even in the most isolated areas - by connecting people via their mobile phones. We also collect participants’ data for analysis, which then helps us to plan our campaigns more effectively. In this way, we are reaching out to hundreds of thousands of people.

TTC was the first of its kind in Africa, mobile phones had never been used before on such a large scale for health educational purposes. The success of Text to Change’s initial programmes in Uganda – covering HIV prevention and the uptake of HIV Voluntary Counseling & Testing (HCT), malaria, family planning, reproductive health and child abuse – paved the way for Text Change’s emerging presence across Africa and other developing regions.

Our sophisticated and innovative mobile platform uses incentive based quizzes to educate, engage, and empower people on health and wellbeing related issues. These quizzes are designed to challenge people’s knowledge. We use a toll free short code, which ensures there is no cost involved for our participants. Our model encourages continued participation in our programmes and furthermore, sparks a dialogue on topics such as HIV/AIDS, which are often considered taboo.