ZMQ, Reliance Bringing AIDS Awareness To Mobile Phones

A new report from All Headline News highlights a new set of mobile games from Delhi-based gaming company ZMQ Software designed to raise funds to increase HIV/AIDS awareness. While before now the games were only available to users of Reliance Infocomm, one of India's largest private cellphone providers, ZMQ now plans to make the games available globally. According to the report, the games were downloaded 2.9 million times between when they were made available in December 2005 and April 30, 2006. The company has indicted that it hopes to see 13-14 million downloads by the end of the year. The report noted that one of the games, Demons XI and Safety XI, is a “cricket-based game involving balls in the form of condoms, faithful partners, information on HIV and the symbolic AIDS red ribbon.” In order to win the game, a player must avoid “googlies and doosra balls - unsafe sex, infected blood transfusions, infected syringes and the company of bad friends.” “The games will educate mobile subscribers and create awareness while reducing stigma and discrimination," noted Hilmi Quraishi, ZMQ's chief technology officer. Other similarly themed games released by ZMQ include Ribbon Chase, Messenger, and Quiz with Babu. According to the report, Reliance Infocomm donates an undisclosed amount of the revenue from the download of these games to projects designed to assist people living with HIV/AIDS. ZMQ plans to release the games globally by September 1, 2006, with content and language adjusted so that the games will be accessible to everyone who downloads them.