Feds Spend $236,517 for Cellphone Game to Teach 11-Year-Old Kenyans How to Use Condoms

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is spending over $200,000 to create a mobile game that will teach young teens in Kenya to use condoms.

The game also seeks to “educate very young adolescents” about HIV and “harmful gender norms.”

“The overall goal of the proposed project is to contribute to reductions in HIV incidence among youth in sub- Saharan Africa,” according to the NIH grant. “The objective of our proposed study is to advance that goal by developing, building and pilot-testing an interactive electronic game for preadolescents that will be informed by socio-behavioral and pedagogical theories, evidence-based practice, and unique formative research on youth sexual culture in sub- Saharan Africa.”

The primary goal of the project is to “design and develop a mobile phone game for young Kenyans ages 11-14 focused on increasing age at sexual debut and condom use at first sex.”

The game will be tested on 60 young teens in western Kenya to see whether they are willing to play the game and to evaluate how much they like it.

Researchers believe the game could reduce unintended pregnancy, “challenge harmful gender norms and HIV stigma, and foster dialogue with parents and guardians.”

The study has cost taxpayers $236,517 so far.

Via: WFB

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OBAMACARE INSURERS REJECT LOUISIANA AIDS PATIENTS

HIV-AIDS advocacy groups say the three insurance companies in Louisiana that offer healthcare plans under ObamaCare are rejecting payments from a federal program that was meant to assist low-income HIV patients.

According to Reuters, the Louisiana Health Cooperative and Vantage Health Plan--two smaller insurers--followed the decision of the state’s largest insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, at the end of last year to reject the payments for the HIV patients.

In response, Lambda Legal, a nonprofit group, filed a civil rights complaint with the Obama administration about the two smaller insurers’ action on Thursday, following their complaint against Louisiana Blue last week, in which they argued that the insurer’s refusal to accept Ryan White payments flouted a key provision of ObamaCare, namely its requirement that insurers must accept customers with pre-existing conditions.

“Additional carriers are jumping on the discrimination bandwagon,” Susan Sommer, director of constitutional litigation for Lambda Legal, said.

The legal nonprofit works to protect the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, and people with HIV.

“The worst nightmare for people with HIV-AIDS is coming true in Louisiana: they’re being turned away in what’s become a race to the bottom by insurers,” Sommer said.

At issue is the federal Ryan White HIV/AIDS program that, for 23 years, has made grants to states, cities, and nonprofit groups to assist low-income people with HIV in the purchase of health insurance.

The advocacy organizations assumed the federal funds could be used to purchase premiums for Ryan White beneficiaries who bought private insurance on the ObamaCare exchanges, in the same way the funds had been used to pay insurance premiums prior to President Obama’s signature healthcare reform law.

Recently, however, both Louisiana Blue and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota began rejecting Ryan White payments made on behalf of poor HIV-AIDS patients who had enrolled in a plan on the ObamaCare exchanges.

Via: Breitbart

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