URUKUNDO Initiative

We are applying to expand our impact from Rwanda to whole developing world to supply them with friendly and evidence based Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) information which will allow adolescents and youth from Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) to thrive and overcome their biggest and alarming challenges which are adolescent’s pregnancy, unsafe abortion, HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).

Currently, approximately 12 million girls aged 15-19 years and at least 777,000 girls under 15 years give birth each year in developing regions. In Rwanda as we started, 1 in 5 girls get pregnant or start child bearing before the age of 19! The root cause of this terrible challenge is lack of accurate sexual health information delivered in a friendly approach. As UNFPA recommends to teach sexuality in games and engaging ways, we developed the best solution which is an award winning sexual health educational game called URUKUNDO [Love] Board Game mobile App and physical game. 

We have a strategy to use elevate prize funding for expansion of such an impacting physical game, development and hosting of URUKUNDO Board Game App to a capacity that can be used by African and Asian young people among others.

Our organization is called URUKUNDO Initiative. URUKUNDO Initiative is committed to revolutionize SRHR education in developing world. We started this initiative as medical students at the University of Rwanda. We used to volunteer in different students’ association and NGOs. Through our weekly community outreaches and research we conducted with Jeff Health students from Jefferson University, USA, we depicted a severe SRHR information gap among adolescents and youth where 80.2% of boys and 81.7% of girls reported myths and misconceptions around SRHR found as the root cause of increased teenage pregnancy rates, STIs and HIV in Rwanda. To give our contribution to curb this, we followed the UNFPA recommendation to teach SRHR through games and we developed URUKUNDO Board Game and mobile application prototype as it is established that youth nowadays are interested in games.

Our vision at URUKUNDO Initiative is to provide innovative health related solutions to curb teenage pregnancies and risky sexual behaviors in developing world by 2050. Our mission and goals are to tackle inequality in sexual health information delivery through creating a safe and friendly way of educating underprivileged young people about sexual and reproductive health, laws and rights necessary to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We are solving a global problem of increased risky sexual behaviors among youth in developing regions resulting in alarmingly increasing adolescents’ pregnancies, unsafe abortion and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) including HIV/AIDS.

To date, approximately 12 million girls aged 15–19 years and at least 777,000 girls under 15 years give birth each year in developing regions as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO).

50% of adolescents who get pregnant dropout their schools and are abandoned by their parents, religions and whole community. Sadly, complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death for 15–19-year-old girls globally! In addition, 5.9 million of those adolescents opt for unsafe abortion increasing their deaths and lasting diseases while 68% of people living with HIV/AIDS lives in Sub-Saharan Africa with 30% in youth aged 15-25 years. 

WHO reports that factors contributing to increasing teenage pregnancies, unsafe abortion and HIV/AIDS in developing region are lack of friendly ways of sexual health education for youth, contraceptive methods and their sexual rights. 

URUKUNDO Initiative is providing such information through youth-friendliest approach which is game. URUKUNDO Board Game and its mobile App expansion will curb these challenges by ensuring adequately informed youth globally.

We are never using the tradition way of education through teacher centered approach. We found new and effective approach to grab the attention and engage youth in the learning process as recommended by UNFPA for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) education through extra-curricular activities like games.

URUKUNDO Board Game is uniquely designed for educating, motivating self-learning and instilling problem-solving skills in adolescents and youth in developing world to bridge the SRHR knowledge gap and curb myths and misconceptions around it.

URUKUNDO Board Game available as physical game and mobile app prototype is unique in the way it provides an evidence based SRHR information in a friendly, trustful, and inclusive way. In its architecture, players are directed by board and dice to pick sexual health related question, brainstorm as a team, drop myths or misconceptions and pick unforgettable evidence based answer protecting them from risky sexual behaviors. In this, the game uniquely test the acquired knowledge. Moreover the game package break taboo of parent-adolescent communication on sexuality issues. The game levels provides age-appropriate SRHR information and contain a book which allows a player to dig deep into a topic of interest to be fully equipped with adequate and protective knowledge.

We have an impact to humanity because we are solving an unmet and alarming problem. Through URUKUNDO Board Game and App we educate and provide information to adolescents thus achieve our impact of reduced teenage pregnancies and risky sexual behaviors. Over 12 million of adolescents aged 15-19 give birth each year in developing region. Most adolescent mothers are at risk of death during delivery or unsafe abortion. As we are tackling this, we are having a positive impact on humanity and the effective steps we are taking to achieve this impact is discussed herein.

As the first step, as URUKUNDO stands for “Love”, URUKUNDO Initiative creates an environment of friendly learning to youth, where teenagers and adolescents find an open space to discuss about Sexual and Reproductive Health and break taboos and myths turning around Sexual and Reproductive Health.

Secondly, we mentor youth in developing regions and involve teen mothers and youth in delivery and education on use of URUKUNDO Board Game packages which help them to meet basic needs and testify our impact.

Finally, we are reaching our planned impact as we developed mobile app to reach unreachable and to serve vulnerable youth globally with friendly and protective information.