2019
3 Weeks
Team Project
Role l Research, Project Management, Physical Prototyping & User Experience
3 Weeks
Team Project
Role l Research, Project Management, Physical Prototyping & User Experience
Sexually transmitted diseases and high abortion rates are common in Nairobi, Kenya because male youths have very little knowledge in sexual reproductive health (SRH). Health service providers (HSP) can offer credible advice but youths prefer seeking SRH information from peers discreetly, albeit inaccurate. Peer educators are influential community leaders and youths feel comfortable confiding in them. Peer educators however lack SRH expertise. Hence, how might we facilitate communication between the stakeholders to increase male involvement in SRH?
Hello Kijana!
Kijana, which means ‘youth’ in Swahili, is a platform that connects male youths to their peer educators via SMS, a popular means of communication. The application offers peer educators suggested responses and follow ups based on the messages they receive from youths. These suggestions contain accurate, updated information and advice from local HSPs.
Filling The Knowledge Gap
Kijana fills the SRH knowledge gap for peer educators as it contains a collection of frequently updated SRH topics that they can learn or revise. Each topic also comes with appropriate suggestions for activities, e.g. soccer, that they can use to teach youths about SRH. In addition, peer educators can start discussions, broadcast important messages and share concerns among themselves. It is ultimately about fostering a strong knitted community.
Real People. Real Stories.
Kijana would not have been possible without rigorous ethnographic research with the stakeholders. This included youths, counsellors, peer educators and female focus groups. Similarly, the stakeholders offered invaluable feedback to various prototypes of different fidelity and that guided content hierarchy and design of key interaction elements.
A flask application was built to facilitate SMS exchange between designated numbers.
A simple interface was built for peer educators to send and receive SMS.
Special Thanks
Nairobi Design Institute
Gearbox
Nairobits Kariobangi & South B
Mathare Youth Sports Association
Gearbox
Nairobits Kariobangi & South B
Mathare Youth Sports Association
Project Status
In development for deployment.
Team
Jeffrey Chow
Moenika Chowdhury
Nadia Bassiri
Tom Pais
Moenika Chowdhury
Nadia Bassiri
Tom Pais
Exhibition
GoGlobal 2019 Exhibition
Mchanganyiko
Mchanganyiko