Afroes has developed an exciting new mobile game celebrating African football – from the street to the stadium.

TekaChamps is an addictively simple mobile game that celebrates football in Africa from the street to the 2010 World Cup. The user travels around the six African nations that qualified for the 2010 World Cup, playing against star players from those countries in order to build an All-Africa Dream Team. The game is targeted at young people across Africa, up to 24 years old.

The game mimics the form of street soccer played in confined settlements across Africa. The goals are placed in diagonal corners of the pitch (so that cars can pass without rearrangement) and the pitch boundaries (normally house walls) are used to deflect the ball in open play. The aim of the game is to move the ball up the pitch and into the opposition goal.

As the user wins matches they are able to unlock international African players to join their squad. Each player has different skills and special abilities, which reflect their real-life talents.

As part of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund led “Champion For Children” campaign, Afroes Foundation has developed three mobile solutions to ensure child participation, awareness raising, vigilance and wellbeing: An educational game promoting child safety; an SMS reporting line for increased public engagement; and a network of young child protection ambassadors armed with mobile phones and powerful mobile applications.

The Champions for Children Campaign is a platform for the association of civil society organizations, donors, business, faith-based and youth representatives united to build and steer a national movement for the protection, safety, care and nurturing of children at all times.  Afroes Foundation is multiplying the reach of the campaign by taking its positive messages directly into the hands and pockets of young people in South Africa.

Champ Chase is an exciting new mobile phone and online game that targets young people with the positive messages of the campaign. The game is designed to raise awareness about child protection, educate young people about child safety and empower children to speak out about abuse happening in their communities. Champ Chase sets the user with a series of missions to locate and rescue children across South Africa. In each level, the user must avoid contact with five different child abusing villains, including physical abusers, child traffickers, criminals, online predators and substance abusers. In order to assist the rescue, child protection resources are located throughout the levels, like the Childline number, which assist the hero in their mission. The game has already generated over 5,000 downloads worldwide.

The reporting platform – built using the Ushahidi engine – encourages the public to submit information about child protection in their community, both positive projects and sensitive incident reports, which are passed on to the most relevant child protection agency to take action. Reports can be submitted online at ChampionsForChildren.org.za or by SMS to 39646.

The MobiChamps network are youth who champion the campaign in their own communities, generating awareness and participation amongst young people. The campaign currently has 20 MobiChamps in communities in Gauteng, Limpopo and the NorthWest, who are promoting the campaign using the game (each targeting 50 downloads a week), conducting mobile surveys, registering young people into the campaign and engaging them on the issue of child protection.