Massira

Of all the ways women are disadvantaged in society, their mental and physical health are also misunderstood and neglected. 

For centuries, the most critical phases of a woman's development like Menstruation, Sex, Fertility, Pregnancy and Menopause have been considered taboo topics. 

Consider Maternal Mortality, which IS largely preventable yet is the primary  cause of death to over 500 women in Sub Saharan Africa daily, especially in their reproductive years.

This is triggered by limited access to healthcare and education; stigma, shame and poor social support; and faulty cultural beliefs.

We are connecting women across Sexual & Reproductive Health to make confident and confidential decisions about their health.

We aim to aid in the early diagnosis and treatment of reproductive health issues, de-stigmatize menstrual, sexual and mental health and encourage financial appropriation towards healthcare. Giving people more control over their health, happiness, and future.

In developing countries, pregnancy and childbirth-related complications are one of the leading causes of death among women aged 15-44
According to WHO, 830 women die daily from preventable cases of reproductive health complications. 66.67% of this comes from Sub Saharan Africa which is 554 women. A study by WHO showed that maternal mortality of a single person reduced per capita GDP by US$ 0.36 which brings a yearly reduction of per capita $

Problems

• Believe system (some people think that give birth at home is better than hospital )

• Knowledge about some sickness that affect pregnancy 

• Stigma & Poor social support

• Knowledge about the effect of some traditionals practices (gender mutilation ...)

A web-based community platform where women can post their experiences, feelings, tips and helpful resources, pose questions to other women and healthcare practitioners in the community.

Who they are

• Our solution serves women of reproductive age between 15 and 40 in Sub Saharan Africa 

Understanding and Engagement 

• Getting to know and understand their needs through in-depth interviews, study of reports and insights from our events and community interactions  

Impact 

Our proposed solution will provide the following impact:

• Women will feel empowered to take control of their bodies , their futures and their health

• Access to the necessary opportunities to achieve their full health potential and health equity,

• Health Proactivity

• Well being

By joining our community, women can connect with each other for social and emotional support. They also get access to verified health care providers and services in the directory.
As we share information and educate users on the importance of health proactivity. Users have  access to OB/GYN, Psychotherapist, and other health practitioners available on the platform thus gynecological health can be improved.

We are taking a holistic, life-course approach to the analysis of women’s health. Unlike our competitors, most of whom are based in the US and Europe, Massira provides advice to African women, accompanying them on a lifelong journey of self-discovery ranging from menstruation to fertility, pre and postnatal care, menopause, mental health and beyond.

We do this through a digital social support platform that fosters conversations on prevalent women's health issues; a wellness diary that allows women to log and track their health symptoms;  a directory of healthcare services and products.

Our solution is a web based application built in JavaScript, HTML and CSS, using ReactJS, Redux and Material UI as frameworks. With a backend powered by Firebase and Google cloud; Dialog flow.

This is the framework for our core value which is a social network that connects people and allows for anonymity. Within this are several features that allow us to offer services like virtual panel discussions, virtual medical consultations, symptom tracking, and AI powered Health concierge.

We intend to extend our technology to internet and smartphone challenged using USSD.

We are using technologies that have been developed and used by the teach Giants like Facebook, Reddit and Slack. React is an open-source JavaScript library created by, a software engineer at Facebook. React is now one of the world’s most widely used JavaScript libraries.

USSD is also widely used by financial services providers especially in Africa.

We have growing community of over 3200 people, 80% of which live in urban areas expecting to reach over 5000 by the end of the year. 

Forecasting an exponential growth in our 3rd year of operation, we aim to impact the lives of 4 million women in the next 5 years.

We are first building a community to understand these women, their issues, behaviour patterns, interests and habits. Based on insights gathered, we will tailor our offerings to meet their needs.

As we test out hypotheses, we execute micro projects and iterate on revenue models.

In the next 5 years, we intend to grow the community up to 4 million as we scale across the region i.e. Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Mali and Kenya.

The primary barriers we have encountered are

• Legal: Company registration
• Cultural: there is a general reluctance to speak openly about such sensitive matters as well as some religious or faith systems that discourage such conversations
• Technical: Internet is rather unstable in the region
• And now with the Covid19 Pandemic it is quite challenging to execute offline strategies

We have started replicating our offline activities such us open dialogues and group meetings on virtual channels like social media and video conferencing platforms

Full-time Staff: 4

Interns: 2

Contractors: 2

We are a team of 75% women and Software developers from Ghana, Nigeria, Mali and Ivory Coast. We have combined experience of over 30 years in software development, data science and sales and first-hand experience with women’s health issues and building female-centered communities. 

We are incredibly passionate about women’s healthcare and closing the gender disparity in accessible care options.

Self Help International

More than Period Pain

We provide women of reproductive age in Africa with

- Social support, Wellness & a Safe space where anonymity is assured
- Healthcare services aggregation
- Education and give reliable information about SRH
- Connect to the specialist base on their need

We do this through a digital platform that fosters conversations on women's sexual, reproductive and mental health issues;  a wellness diary that allows women to log and track their health symptoms and a directory of healthcare service providers;

We are currently operating on funds received the Meltwater Foundation as equity investment. We intend to extend our runway through a combination Grants and selling products and services.

Access to a diverse community from which we can tap into a wealth of knowledge to get up to speed faster and shorten the learning curve. 
An opportunity to share and learn from other founder experiences, failures and success stories on the startup journey to prevent making the same mistakes. 
Mentorship presents an opportunity to bounce off ideas for unfiltered opinions. This will help us identify areas where we might be lacking so as to improve on them and expand our viewpoint, to see multiple perspectives to solving problems.
We hope to raise equity-free funding to  develop more educational content, make our application easily accessible and reach more women across the region.

We will also like to be connected with key stakeholders in the healthcare space and find mentors who have a good understanding of the mechanics of our work and how to improve and build upon it.