FunHealthy Dating

Removing limitations on sexual and reproductive health conversations, breaking premarital sex stigma by creating a youth friendly software providing sexuality education, services allocation and healthy dating under health specialists guidance.

Once in their lifetime, adolescents  will have a life-changing decision to make regarding their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), Yet, the research shows that the majority of adolescents lack the knowledge required to make those decisions responsibly.

According to WHO, Adolescents across the world face considerable challenges to their SRHR. These include intimate partner violence; lack of education and information; high rates of  unwanted pregnancy; lack of access to health services, especially for contraception and safe abortion; and harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation, early and forced marriage; and risk of STIs. Globally, an estimated 21 million girls aged 15–19 years in developing regions become pregnant and approximately 12 million of them give birth. 

In Rwanda, despite various initiatives to improve youth’s well-being, SRHR challenges remain a significant public health concern. It is reported that teenage pregnancy in Rwanda has been on a fast rise, where 17 337 teenagers conceived in 2018; 23 544 in 2019; 19 701 in 2020, and 23 000 in 2021. Adolescents exposed to the overall burden of  unwanted pregnancy and childbirth suffer from associated health problems such as stigma and discrimination by society which further puts them at risk of repeated pregnancy, high rates of stillbirth, HIV/AIDS, other STIs, postpartum hemorrhage and mental disorders, poverty, school dropouts, drug abuse, all which are a burden to their families and society.

In Rwanda, the main stem of these SRHR problems is the traditional Rwandan culture that still places taboo and stigma on intimacy, especially premarital intimacy. The youth dating or engaging in sexual activities fear initiating conversation either with their families or health practitioners because they fear being labeled as bad mannered or “westernized” ( holding a negative connotation). Consequently, the youth ends up relying on little to none information and may fall in the hands of predators or end up getting pregnant or contracting STIs which could have been prevented if they would have had a safe space for information and conversations. 

Lastly, the youths having to overcome the unfortunate consequences of misinformation around SRHR(s) and their overloading burden causes a great toll on their mental health. The prevalence of depression in Rwanda ranges between 15% to 53% while the PTSD rate is between 11% to 46% (Rwanda Mental Health Survey, 2018). Teen mothers may end up getting depressed or develop suicidal thoughts because of the poverty and isolation of raising a baby on their own. Furthermore, abortion is so controversial that even thinking about it is traumatic and it is burdensome to find someone confidential and non-judgmental to discuss one’s options. That may lead to women having a traumatic experience with illegal abortion and end up developing PTSD. 

Thus we have designed an adolescents friendly and easy to use software application “FunHealthy dating” of breaking the existing limitation in delivering trustworthy sexual and reproductive health information with easy access to reproductive health counselors and mental health specialists with services allocation to nearby health centers and pharmacies.

Our solution is FunHealthy dating application.

The application is designed to (1) avail adolescents friendly sexuality information with Comprehensive sexuality education approach, raise awareness regarding dating tips, healthy relationship, contraception methods, safe abortion, and mental health resources. Additionally, it addresses issues such as violence, stigma and respect for bodily autonomy, which profoundly affect individuals’ psychological, emotional and social well-being. It further specifically addresses the SRHR of marginalized groups (e.g. adolescent girls, LGBTQIA+ individuals and those with disabilities). The information will be featured as reels, short articles, games, or puzzles. This information will allow them to successfully engage in dating with clarity and freedom to make informed decisions. All the information on the application will be accurate up to date because it will be provided by our partner professionals and artists with reliable backgrounds in these fields. The resources will be in three main languages spoken in Rwanda; Kinyarwanda, English, and French.

FunHealthy Dating application will also (2) connect our users to licensed professionals in the field for consults and therapies. The information of the users will be protected and only accessible by these professionals. We are establishing partnerships with organizations like the ministry of health, UNFPA, Heath Development Initiative (HDI), and district hospitals to recruit their staff so that sessions could be booked locally, conducted in person or online. Lastly, the application will be a living hub of services allocations with contact information of secondary resources. For instance, there will be names and locations of pharmacies that sell emergency contraception pills, list of hospitals/ doctors all over the country in the fields of mental health, psychiatry, gynecologists, intimate partner abuse, and dating counselors. 

To make our technology nationwide accessible, it will be available both as an internet dependent application and as USSD code for our beneficiaries in remote places. 

The targeted population are youths entering their adolescence in the time to explore their sexuality and youths being hardly hit by the spike in mental health issues in this generation. For instance,  Alice has had three boyfriends already, but my parents have no idea. I would sneak out to go meet them, meet them in bars because my parents wouldn’t allow a boy to visit me home; which is still the case now being twenty-four years old. Luckily, my boyfriends proved to be decent, but imagine my peers who meet random guys on dating apps who ended up either abusing them or just stood them up? Imagine my peers coming from strong Protestant backgrounds who never had a sex conversation with their guardians who finds themselves financially struggling in college, then entangles with a sugar daddy who tricks them that sex during the periods cannot lead to a pregnancy? Imagine my peers who have never dated until 25, and now meet a partner who truly loves them, but seems a tiny bit controlling? Like, checks their phone, cannot allow them to have other close friends, but just have never laid a hand on them? Will they age thinking that that is the only way to love? Imagine our peers in LGBTQIA+ who only learned in school about a female-male sex, has no idea of the risks of STIs in a homosexual sex, who have no health facilities specializing in their health; how can they make informed decisions? They mostly rely on social media and imported information which in reality is unreliable. All these situations that are not imaginary, rather a reality of 5 million Rwandan youths (Rwandan National Statistics, 2016), get worsened by the fact that therapy is expensive and regarded as a luxury and reserved for the crazy. We miss the honest hard conversations from our guardians/ parents and are furthermore discouraged to approach a therapist.

Therefore, as youths who are lucky to have been blessed with education that opened our eyes to more reality than our upbringing, who had first experience with the marvelous healing wonders of therapy, future professionals in the health sector, we felt compelled to create this app to enlighten and serve our peers. Considering the vulnerability of different youth groups we intend to serve ranging from adolescents, young people with disabilities and LGBTQ+, our application will offer information and special needs services on gender and sexual rights which will allow them to explore their sexuality in a fun, safe and effective way. More importantly, the youth will have a safe space where they can fully express themselves without retributions, a healthy safe space to feel seen and explore their bodies. As a result, we envision a future with youth empowered youth with a healthy mental state in healthy relationships.

To make sure that information discrimination does not lead to destruction of another youth’s life and that each youth can get a chance to heal from their past, thrive in the present, and build a better future.

We are a diverse  team of  public health activists ranging from medical to psychology to advertising to IT to art students passionate about Sexual and Reproductive health, and mental health  projects and bringing community  improvement. We are or lived adolescent life as well as  volunteered in Sexual and Reproductive health, and mental health  projects. 

Having medical students on the team is an added value with their background, where they are equipped with evidence based sexual and reproductive health information from their practice on top of basic knowledge on reproductive anatomy, physiology and psychology of young people. Their regular supervision and mentorship from senior medical doctors will be key in helping us secure our first round of health practitioners to incorporate on our application.  

Some of our team members have studied neuroscience and psychology and are artists. Their expertise in mental health and storytelling will be paramount in approaching the youths and improvising their mental health state.

We are also comprised of  IT students who have been into development of different application softwares with eminent Application developers that enables us to develop  such a “FunHealth Dating Application” to break scarcity of information and services among youth and adolescents. 

Our previous projects/ volunteering have been through organizations like Rwanda Biomedical center, and Health Development Initiative (HDI), UNICEF Rwanda, Butare and Kigali Teaching , and Rwanda Military Hospitals, Never Again Rwanda among others. These experiences equipped us with immense knowledge on social entrepreneurship, how to serve the community, and how to be leaders of change. Additionally, we learned what a user-friendly social application looks like and how to market it to reach a broader range of beneficiaries. The latter makes us confident in developing a life changing FunHealth Dating application for adolescents and young adults.

We have partnered  with IT firms for second opinion during application development as far as needed such as Andela which help us ensure quality and timely availability of the applications.

Encircled with consultants in the health sector as well skilled personnels in Application software development. Our application contents and design are being thoroughly proofread by experts in the field. This gives assurance to giving the best version of the content as well as giving evidence based health information and services.

All of us have individually done so many other projects in the realm of sexual and reproductive health and rights, mental health, and software development, and partner intimate violence. Our prior experiences opened our eyes on the need for information and access to resources in those fields amongst the youth. 

In one of our previous projects entitled “I wear a menstrual Cup” in partnership with Health Development Initiative (HDI), we realized that, beyond the period poverty  dangers, the youth have limited knowledge of their reproduction. In the 60 young mothers and fathers of Gatsibo districts that we had sessions with, 80% of them did not know the difference between menstruation and fertility period on a woman's menstrual cycle. 

In one of our earlier project called “Healing through poetry by us”, where we toured 10 high schools scattered in all the districts in Rwanda, we saw that so many of us the youth are all dealing with mental health issues like depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety, OCD, and depression. However, we were presently surprised that all the schools we approached, the hardest part was getting visitation access to the school by the administration; the students themselves were eager and captivated on how to cultivate a healthier mental health, how to support each other, and asked questions on whether to trust in therapy. This project gave us hope that our FunHealthy dating application will be well received and used to its utmost advantage. 

In addition, having implemented the Tubarinde Project aimed at availing evidence-based information and services on Contraception where  we realized that many youths have misconceptions on Family planning such as being infertile after use, reducing libido. Thus, we are making sure that our FunHealhy Dating Application to shade light on all misconception, myths and false beliefs around  SRHR. We will also give more information on which contraception affects their women’s mental health, especially their mood swings and emotions; as well as offer them various other options. 

Furthermore, Ben worked on another project called GBV HUB REPORT where they acted as intermediaries between people looking for GBV Emergency Response  with Government agencies. Not only was it successful but he managed to get exposure talking to their beneficiaries on their needs and how we can best help them. The three main suggestions he got from their feedback was access to trustworthy information, making sure to not overwhelm our recipients with complex terminologies and technologies, and respecting their final choices. We managed to incorporate those feedbacks by contacting various health professionals and artists in the field with a golden heart willing to give back to the community and to educate the youth unbiased of their own beliefs/ religion. So far, we have 12 confirmed health practitioners whom some of them work in tertiary hospitals like Rwanda Military Hospital, CHUK, and CHUB. We also have 6 confirmed artists willing to write poems and plays contents for our application. Even better, since all of them are youths, they will have a higher relatability to our beneficiaries, which will be monumental in building rapport and reaching realistic treatment plans. 

1. Availing information that are tabooed and inaccessible

In many parts of Africa and Rwanda particularly, talking openly about sexual and reproductive health is considered by many a taboo, thus adolescents growing up in African families face the challenge of limited access to lifesaving comprehensive sexuality education and mental health information which should basically be among conversations between children and their parents or guardians. Usually in Rwanda, little and inconsistent comprehensive sexuality education starts to be delivered at an older age. The issue remains that the content at all levels of education is very limited, still places emphasis on abstinence over other contraception methods, and does not teach any sexual contents tailored to LGBTQIA+ community since Rwanda has no national stance on that community. The lack of information and safe space for conversation is fatal because even at that young age, some of the students are already sexually active; just without anyone’s knowledge and guidance.

FunHealth dating will avail adolescents friendly and easy to assimilate sexual and reproductive health information. The application contains uptodate sexual and reproductive health information, tips for healthy dating and respectful relationships, gender and sexual rights, adolescents mental health all approved by specialists in the field. The users will be given access to online  consultations provided by healthcare specialists we work with. This will markedly reduce the use of non trusted sources for information seeking and improve the quality of comprehensive sexuality education given.

2.Youth to youth approach      

Since technology is rapidly being adopted in several parts of the country, some young people have started using different internet dating apps, others are opting to use the internet for sexual and reproductive health information even from non-trusted sources which provide little to   non helpful information needed by adolescents. As previously mentioned, others get information from their peers or other random people who in addition to providing less information, some provide wrong information which further puts adolescents at risk of sexual coercion and other risky behaviors. With such a youth for youth approach, the application provides the youth with room where young people using the application will be able to interact and forge  discussions on sexual and reproductive health and get offered  guidance from each other’s experience and learning journey. 

3. Availing information on and off line 

FunHealthy dating app will be available on the internet and USSD code which facilitates its usage in remote areas where internet is not well accessible. It will be affordable to the target beneficiaries. Through different feedback channels, application users will be able to provide suggestions and wishes on how the app can best serve them and we will regularly consider and work on their suggestions.

4. Service allocation   

Moreover, Funhealthy dating offers service allocation to users, where young people will be guided to their nearest health centers to access different sexual and reproductive services they might need, on top of that, we will also work with pharmacies where users will be able to place their orders for different pharmaceuticals  mainly, emergency contraceptives pills, other family planning methods, and self tests kits. 

5. Broader use of the application and how it will change the status quo

We expect FunHealthy dating to change the existing status quo of poor and limited sexual and reproductive health information among young people through its technology approach. It will break the existing barriers of access  to reproductive health specialists in the country and allow young people to enjoy friendly learning and access to easily available services. This will certainly prompt adolescents to open conversation and discuss these topics of interest with their families. Furthermore, we expect to work closely with different high schools teachers who will catalyze easy usage through adopting the app in the comprehensive sexuality education classes.

Once the solution works well in Rwanda, It will open doors of opportunities to scale up in other African countries since the continent is largely affected by poor sexual and reproductive health.

With Funhealthy dating, we envision three main transformational goals;

1. Promote the usage of the application with target use of 100,000 young people in a year. 

As a new health application designed to create a platform for youth to learn and assimilate SRHR in a fun and interactive way, we opt to reach more young people and impact them with this opportunity to protect and safeguard their reproductive,mental health. We plan to make use of the existing youth channels, youth sexual and reproductive health clubs in schools, out school youth platforms, youth hubs, Youth corners at the health centers,  social media, radios and televisions to promote FunHealthy dating app to reach as many youths as we can. 

Considering the existing health inequity between the urban and remote areas in Rwanda, we envision to bridge the existing healthcare gaps for youth access to life saving information and services. Where access to consultation with reproductive health specialists, mental health counselors is considered a luxury, we are determined to change this status quo and offer chances and possibilities to young people in rural areas to access and use our application. With that said, we will start with hard hit districts with high rates of teenage pregnancy like those of eastern province of Rwanda: Rwamagana, Kayonza, and Gatsibo districts.

We are cognisant of the low socioeconomic status of our  population but we believe that no  young people should be held back by consequences of poor access to lifesaving sexual and reproductive health information and services. Considering the usual  limited availability and accessibility of the health specialists for physical consultations, Funhealthy dating app will provide easy access to friendly reproductive health information and services to the most underserved young people regardless of their background.

2. Secondly, we are looking forward to growing our partnerships with different institutions to create a bigger space and strengthen the impacts of FunHealthy dating app in the country and beyond. The targeted partners include;

• The Ministry of Health and Health specialists professionals.  This will increase the supply of healthcare specialists on the app and assist in their payments. As the app user number spikes up, we will accommodate beneficiary needs through adding more specialists and  expanding the app services. Through our users' feedback, we also intend to work with the ministry of health to provide regular training to those specialists to keep providing youth friendly services.

• The ministry of ICT and innovation, Ministry of Education and Youth.  FunHealthy dating app being a tech based intervention, it will need regular upgrade and scale up for countrywide dissemination and use. We also target the ministry’s technical support to improve the app.

• UN agencies: UNFPA & UNICEF for financial and technical support to promote the usage of the app.

3. Thirdly, the FunHealthy dating app will look forward to expanding our impact on beneficiaries through the creation of a youth arts room. The room  will be established for raising the social economic well being of our beneficiaries where they will acquire skills to make reusable pads with our partner KuSocial Enterprise which will be sold. All profits made from these reusable pads making will further contribute to the wellbeing of our beneficiaries.

FunHealthy Dating is a software solution Removing limitations on sexual and reproductive health conversations, breaking premarital sex stigma by creating a youth friendly software providing sexuality education, services allocation and healthy dating under health specialists guidance.

 Our software is a hybrid technology that may be accessed online or through the U.S.S.D application in rural areas where internet service is challenging. The first is for entering and recording user credentials such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and other helpful information for simple tracking and providing good services. After obtaining all critical information from the user, we immediately connect them to a counselor; in this section, the user may talk, chat, ask quick questions, and get daily news on sex reproduction and mental health to keep informed.

The server hosting our application will be software as a service and we will mainly use python and R coding language to analyze the data of our users. To make our interface user-friendly, we will use python UI libaries. In application software, privacy of the users is a big concern, however, the steps we have taken to ensure the privacy of their data is by Database management system ,security protocols  and Access control . On another hand, we will develop the USSD code for our beneficiaries in remote areas. Developing a USSD code requires PHP language .

So far, the software development is at this analysis stage and recruiting more IT people on our team. Meanwhile too, our already confirmed health practitioners and artists are curating their contents. 

Our FunHealthy dating solution is a software and mobile application operating in Rwanda. The solution aims at breaking the existing limitation in delivering trustworthy sexual and reproductive health information with easy access to reproductive health counselors and mental health specialists with services allocation to nearby health centers and pharmacies. It will also allow users to discreetly connect with healthcare providers for virtual consultations. According to Rwanda's national institute statistics, 75% of the country's population of 13 million people is composed of youth. Moreover, 9.75 million of the country's 13 million people are under 35 years of age, which classifies them as youths (2018). Our solution is an idea in its birthing, we haven’t finished creating the software yet. So far we have confirmed partners and practitioners, and 0 software users. However, we envision to reach at most 100 000 application users in a year.

The application will feature interactive content, such as reels, quotes, short articles, quizzes, games, and videos, to make learning about sexual health fun, healthy, and engaging. Users can search for information on specific topics or browse through the various sections of the application. Users can also request each other to have private conversation or room discussions where they can easily learn from each other. We anticipate that approximately 100,000 adolescents will access our application in our first year of operation. 

 We have several barriers to creating a web and mobile application for sexual health information in the first year of operation. Some of the main obstacles we might face include the following:

1. Financial: Developing a web and mobile application requires a significant amount of financial resources, including the cost of hiring developers, designers, and other necessary personnel. Maintaining and updating the application over time will also require an ongoing financial investment. Thus, get financial support from MIT Solv(ed) will be a life changing opportunity to bring to life a software that would improve so many lives of the youth. 

2. Technical and legal: Building a web and mobile application that can provide accurate and up-to-date information on sexual health, contraception, and S.T.I.s requires a high level of technical expertise and knowledge. Several legal and regulatory challenges must be considered when creating a health care related website and mobile application.

The above anticipated challenges are the reason why we are partnering with the Ministry of Health and ICT to make sure that the content on our software is aligned with the ministry of health standards. Additionally, with the app hosting content created by licensed health practitioners in Rwanda, that will speak volume in the credibility of the contents. On the other hand, the Ministry of ICT will help us strengthen our technologies to protect the users’ privacy. We also have faith in our IT department to create a good secure application. 

3. Cultural: There may be cultural barriers to adopting a web and mobile application for sexual health information. Some individuals and communities may be more resistant to using digital tools for this purpose. Additionally, ensuring that the application is inclusive and accessible to all individuals, regardless of their background or identity or sexuality, maybe a cultural challenge.

We are making sure that the information we provide on the software is true and versatile and is not based on any religion or belief or any other bias. This will allow each user to find contents that best fit their needs. Additionally, having a diverse team (both project team and partners and health practitioners) in terms of gender, age, education, and sexuality, and class will help us check our own bias, ensure representation of all the beneficiaries on our app, and make the application worthy to challenge the traditional status quo. We are aware that we cannot change or reach the 100 000 anticipated youth at once, but we are betting on the propagation of change, where one satisfied and helped user on our app will share the good news to their friends and start a whole chain of reaching on to more users. 

4. Market: The market for web and mobile applications related to sexual health is already quite crowded, with many similar products already available. This can make it difficult to stand out and attract users to the application. Additionally, the market for these types of applications may be limited, which can also impact the overall potential impact of the application.

However, we stand unthreatened by the competition because our software is a melting point of services, information, and safe space for the youth facing sexual human reproductive rights and mental health issues. No other solutions offer information, consultation services, and services allocation. Therefore, given the financial support we need and after passing all the legality checks, our application will be a solution to many youths and will spread easily nationwide. 

Overall, developing and launching a web will be complex and challenging , however, we are eager and passionate and smart caring talented team of youth committed to making this project a success. 

We plan to partner with the Rwanda military hospital,Kigali and Butare Teaching Hospitals, Health Development Initiative, Rwanda Biomedical Center, Ministry of ICT, and Ministry of health to work on our project. 

       @ The hospitals will provide us with health practitioners to create content for the website and provide consults. Their partnership will also speak volume on the credibility of our content and project in general.

        @  The ICT ministry will help us strengthen our technologies to protect the users’ privacy while the ministry of health will help us make sure that the content on our software is aligned with the ministry of health standards. 

         @ Andela developers company. They will offer a final check on the strength of the codes of our software and offer constant guidance to our IT team. 

         @ The artists will help us curate youth age-cutting, creative, fun, relatable, easy to digest information educational and impactful to our beneficiaries.

Overall, all these partnerships will allow us to collaborate and make a positive impact on the health and well-being of adolescents in Rwanda.

FunHealth Dating App BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS

KEY PARTNERS;

-HDI (Health Development Initiative) 

-Andela & GAMI Express  (App Developers)

-MEDSAR (Medical Students

Association of

Rwanda)

-Artists

-Ministry of ICT& Innovation

-Ministry of Youth and Culture

-Rwanda Biomedical Center

-Tertiary Hospitals (RMH,CHUK,CHUB)

KEY ACTIVITIES:

-Content creation for the software

-Advertising

-Continuous

update of the

application 

-Receiving

beneficiaries

feedback

-Provision of

Friendly services

-Creating youth web rooms

-Organizing and managing all the consults on the app

VALUE PROPOSITION:

-We deliver

adolescent’s friendly

SRHR and Mental health services

- Entertainment 

-Peer chatting rooms

-We are solving the problem of low provision and limited

access of SRHR and mental health services to adolescents and  youth

-Fighting against the stigma around dating and premarital intimacy

-Availing consultation and therapies

-Availing contraception Services

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP:

- feedback portal on the app

- survey

Channels (Social media, Phone calls…)

- Promotions and

Discounts

- Personal

Assistance

-guaranteed privacy

-userfriendly interface

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS:

Parents of Young Adolescents (10-14)

- Old adolescents (15-19)

- Young adults (20-24)

- NGOs working on SRH and Mental Health

- SCHOOLS

Important customers- youths and

young adolescent

KEY RESOURCES:

-Computers, Mobile phones, and other electronic devices

-Airtime& Internet

-Office Supplies (Pens, papers)

-Human Resource (Technicians, App Developers,)

CHANNELS:

-Shop/Libraries

-Exhibitions

-Schools

-youth friendly centers

-Youth corners

-Youth ambassadors

-Media houses

-Social Media platform Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp..))

-Arts rooms

SURPLUS:

-Quartery update of App

-Fabrication of Reusable pads

-Publications and Advertisements

-Interyouth Competitions

-Project plots Purchase

COST STRUCTURE:

-App Development = 3K $

- Office Computers (3) = 2K $ 

 -Annual Office Supplies (Papers, pens..) = 500$ 

- Annual Rent = 1.5k$

 - Annual Adverts and publication = 1.2K$

 - Annual Human resource (10 staff) = 2.3K$ 

----------------------------------------------------

 Annual Total=  10.5K $

REVENUE STREAM(S):

Customers mostly value adolescents friendly SRH and Mental health information provision platform and inclusive SRH provision platforms.

- selling reusable pads= 2K$

- Selling a Premium Typing application and games= 3K$

-Project business ( land plot or renting): 3k$ Donations and grants:4K $

Annual Revenue= 12K$

Net Profi=1.5K $

Free-for-service

We want our application to be accessible to all youths either in urban or remote places; so the services on our application will have both a freemium and premium for our beneficiaries and a segment of our beneficiaries will be as well part of the customer segment. However, we envision three main ways of earning money.

Organizational support

1. A portion of our revenue will be from the sale of our application premium either from our customers or stakeholders to sustain the project as  well as our application remain accessible to youth and adolescents of all walks of life.

2. In addition, after teaching the benefiers how to make and sell reusable pads, they will give back to us 5% of their profit.

1. We will invest 25% of the prize money into a fast-rewarding project in Rwanda, in the name of the software, to ensure a constant supply of funds towards our app. Some of the ideas we have so far are either renting houses or the business of buying and selling land plots after an incubation time.

Employment

In the long term goal, when our software becomes a success, artists who will ask to advertise their content on our application will pay us a revenue of 15%.