Award-winning SRHR/COVID-19 edtech game

Lulu Lab is changing the world through engaging, educational games (SDG 4) that are based on the SDG’s. In Africa, 1 in 4 girls give birth before turning 18, and 1 in 10 drop out of school because of their periods. Lulu Lab works to keep girls in school (SDG 5), by educating girls - and boys, about SRHR and MHM (SDG 10) in East and West Africa. In 2020, we have also co-developed COVID-19 education for all and we are currently co-developing a new Edtech game on Gender Equality for young adults in the MENA-region. We co-create solutions closely with our partners (SDG 17), and develop the games with human-centered design methods and by teaching our end-users entrepreneurial skills (SDG 1+9), and education on important health and rights topics (SDG 16). Lulu Lab's mission is to empower users to make informed decisions about their future (SDG 8).

The most significant risk to the lives of women in LMIC is pregnancy and childbirth. UNFPA states that every 2 minutes a woman dies from complications in pregnancy or childbirth, many from unsafe abortions, and every year more than 225 million adolescent girls and women of reproductive age have an unmet need for family planning.

A woman’s right to decide on her own life and body is a cornerstone of gender equality. UN Women states that women’s wages increase by 10-20% for every additional year of primary education they receive. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 52.2 million girls dropped out of primary and secondary school in 2016, which was 15% more than the male drop-out. Currently, around 10% of African girls drop out of school due to their menstruation - significantly contributing to the vicious cycle of poverty. Education on SRHR in Africa is insufficient, children don’t get information from their parents and teachers don’t always know how to grasp the topics. The adolescents, and especially girls, who are negatively affected by these taboos, need to be educated about SRHR and their bodies to be empowered to make positive decisions in their best interests.

Lulu Lab's award winning Edtech games are 1) educational tools empowering girls and boys with knowledge, 2) dialogue tools that gives end-users a language to speak about taboo topics with each other, and 3) a research tool that collects health data for our partner’s Evaluation, Monitoring & Advocacy efforts.

Lulu Lab’s edtech game concept is developed to easily be updated with new content, adapted to new cultural settings and languages! We scale and develop through partnerships and are currently looking into scaling to French-speaking African countries with PLAN International and several country offices with Save the Children. However, we hope to use this grant as an opportunity to reach, empower and impact even more end-users. Since August 2020, more than 9000 girls and boys have learned from the Dilemma Game.

End-users are boys and girls in the age range 10-24 years living in rural, urban and slum areas of LMIC. Our current end-users are based in East and West Africa but there is also a huge educational need for engaging COVID, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights education in other continents such as South Asia; India, Bangladesh, Nepal. We partner with NGOs, and while we develop the games closely with the end-users, the NGOs test and implement the games on the ground. Our games enhance the already existing efforts of NGOs who often have existing youth clubs, girls after school clubs or sexual education on the agenda. We are already in contact with several interested NGOs in e.g. India and Bangladesh, and are newest partner is UNFPA Ghana which further validates the need and Lulu Lab's Edtech concept.

Even though COVID-19 caused lock-downs and closed schools (right when we launched the Dilemma game), we have impacted 9000+ girls and boys in Uganda and Sierra Leone alone, since August 2020. These users have learned about reproductive health, STI's, contraceptives, pregnancy, puberty, sexual rights, children rights and how to stay safe and healthy during COVID-19. Impact examples from Uganda: 1) 33% of users did not know that contraceptives reduce the risk of unsafe abortions among youth. 2) 32,1% of users did not know that domestic violence also occurs outside marriage.

The Dilemma game is developed to be translated to different languages, cultural contexts and topics. Our end-users in Sierra Leone have proven, that the interactive storytelling works as a teacher on how to stay safe and healthy during COVID-19 and especially empower them to share their new knowledge with peers. Lulu Lab has proven that we can quickly ensure needed education when a pandemic hits the world as we managed to include the covid-19 education during the first lockdown before the release of the game.

The dilemma game has undergone a technical review to ensure that the game has the highest quality possible and lives up to international Sexual Education standards, why it is now ready to scale for other LMIC countries.

Lulu Lab partners with NGOs to co-create and test games closely with end-users in their local context. During the human-centered co-creation process, Lulu Lab facilitates workshops for end-users to learn more about which game visuals, content and audio are most suitable and appropriate for the target user (user research). During these workshops, Lulu Lab teaches end-users entrepreneurial skills and Design-thinking e.g. by sending users in the field to test ideas and validate potential business opportunities. There is a great lack of (female) role models and employment in the many slum areas where Lulu Lab is working, and Lulu Lab wish to continue to support entrepreneurship and local empowerment of the youth in developing countries.

Since August 2020 we have impacted over 9000 girls and boys in East and West Africa.

We are currently working on an educational game for North Africa and we are working to expand our reach with the Dilemma Game in East Africa. With our current global NGO partnerships, we have the impact potential of 57 million users.

3 fulltime

Sally, Partnership, Innovation and UX manager:

Sally has international business experience from 2 years in developing countries while studying and working at the Royal Danish Embassy. Specializing in start-up and corporate partnerships led to a Talent program at PFA, further developing her skills in innovation and service design, UX, strategy and partnerships. Sally is co-founder of Lulu Lab, and her tasks include conducting user research and user tests of current game to Jordanian target group to better understand the local (girls and boys’) language around GBV, Empowerment, gender equality and gender stereotypes, the cultural sensitivities, and how Lulu Lab can best target the current user needs for SRHR education. She furthermore facilitates co-creation workshops, focus group discussions with involved test communities and local experts.

Matilde, Visual artist:

Matilde has experience in digital design from the design bureau Grrr in Amsterdam and furthermore experience working with educational material, digital illustration and edtech from Alinea Publishing.

Matilde is co-founder of Lulu Lab, and her tasks include assisting in user research and user test of current game to Jordanian target group. Assisting in co-creation workshops and focus group discussions. Graphic design of several Indian characters and guiding characters, settings resonating with Indian users and possibly other illustrated elements in several minigames aligning with Lulu Lab’s culturally specific findings in the user research, tests, co-creation workshops and focus group discussions conducted in Jordan.

Lulu Lab works with skilled game developers to deliver tailored solutions to our partners and end-users.

We are applying to become a Solver, because we believe that you can help us scale our solution to reach and impact even more end-users. We believe that a network like yours will greatly improve our strategies in terms of scaling and measuring our impact.

Lulu Lab is changing the world through engaging, educational games (SDG 4) that are based on the SDG’s. Lulu Lab works to keep girls in school (SDG 5), by educating girls - and boys, about SRHR and MHM (SDG 10) in East and West Africa. In 2020, we have also co-developed COVID-19 education for all and we are currently co-developing a new Edtech game on Gender Equality for young adults in the MENA-region. We co-create solutions closely with our partners (SDG 17), and develop the games with human-centered design methods and by teaching our end-users entrepreneurial skills (SDG 1+9), and education on important health and rights topics (SDG 16). Lulu Lab's mission is to empower users to make informed decisions about their future (SDG 8).