The CyberSenga project

Sheana Salyers Bull, PhD, MPH, Professor, Department of Community and Behavioral Health at the Colorado School of Public Health, is a co-investigator in this project, which is being run by “Internet solutions for kids” in California, with Dr. Michele Ybarra as the Principal Investigator. CyberSenga is a comprehensive sexuality education program tailored to middle school aged youth in rural Uganda, where HIV prevalence is greater than 5%. The “senga” in Ugandan culture is the name given to the maternal aunt in families, and she is responsible for mentoring young people and offering advice as they come of age. Because families are often separated because of migration, the senga isn’t always accessible—and young people don’t have good access to complete and personalized sexuality education. With the growing reliance on and access to computers and the internet in rural Uganda and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, CyberSenga offers youth an opportunity to learn what they need to about sexuality in a private and personalized way. The program offers games, quizzes, and fun ways to interact with this serious content. The project is led by Dr. Michele Ybarra, CEO of Internet Solutions for Kids, Inc., in California and investigators include Dr. Julius Kiwanuka of Mbarara University of Science and Technology. CyberSenga will test whether youth can improve sexual risk behaviors after being exposed to the program; future technology based efforts can be expanded throughout Uganda and East Africa to facilitate prevention of HIV. This project began in 2008 and ended December 2012. Dr. Bull can be reached at sheana.bull@ucdenver.edu.