Right on track with its set plans and objectives, the United Nations Population Fund in collaboration with one of Kenya’s incubators, Nailab have chosen 4 innovative solutions to put through an acceleration program to give them a head start in developing their solutions. The 4 month long acceleration program will pair them with expert mentors, enroll them in business management and development training and allow them access to seed capital of KES 1,000,000 in relation to the set milestones they achieve.
This process all began back in June when applications were open through the I.AM initiative, one calling on young people to realize their desire to talk, discuss, learn and understand their sexual and sexual reproductive health by engaging with credible sources of information in safe and un-stigmatized environments. The application period closed on 26th July, which saw 92 applications submitted to the program.
After a review process as stated in their plan, 10 finalists we chosen to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges yesterday. By the end of the session 4 innovators emerged as winners and will be going through the accelerator program.
They include;
Fluid
A mobile game that seeks to combine fun and learning by bringing to life the theories learnt on sexuality and sexual reproductive health hereby helping a young person deduce, react and decide I situations through gamification
Sophie Bot
Sophie is an intelligent system that is fed with verified information on sexuality and sexual reproductive health and relays the information to its users through conversations that are driven by text or voice chats. Her features include anonymous forums and digital bots built in on Facebook, Telegram, Messenger and Twitter.
Deaf Elimu Plus Limited
A web and mobile based application that will enable deaf youth users to search for specific SRH (sexual reproductive health) information /words in Kenyan Sign Language (KSL) and to observe KSL stores and explanations about SRH through video content. It will also incorporate a gaming and quiz aspect to the videos
Imara TV
An online system that crowd sources and curates youth generated video content on human development, sexuality and identity and whose content is peer educators accredited.
Like I stated earlier, this is the first cycle of this program and it will end with a final demo day on 30th November where the innovators can showcase their solution and the growth they have attained to an expert panel. Key lessons learnt and documented reports will be collected throughout this first cycle in order to inspire and inform the future upcoming cycles.
We at Techweez wish them all the best.
