Woman builds app to help young people get information about sexual health

Pamela, Ruth’s sister, was 23 years old when she started to become very thin, losing her hair and getting a skin rash. She was HIV positive but didn’t know due to lack of awareness and information. Because of that, she didn’t get medical treatment right away.

“She was taken to a witch doctor to be cleansed of demons. When she eventually did get taken to hospital, it was too late and she died there”, Ruth recalled.

This drove Ruth to want to help people know about sexual health. So she built Ask Without Shame after joining a social innovation academy.

The Android app is free and was launched in 2015, featuring a free phone line and text message that helps the user to get information about sexual health. The questions are answered by doctors, nurses and counsellors.

Ask Without Shame has more than 60,000 users from Uganda and other African countries.

“We have been able to debunk myths, stop probable HIV transmissions and unwanted pregnancies and improve the health and relationship life of many users.
We are also conducting specific needs based awareness training in local communities across Uganda and have trained peer educators using the FAQs from our users. The current goal is to reach over 1.000.000 youth in East Africa”, it says on the official website.

Adapted from: https://bit.ly/2BHu7a7

More info: http://askwithoutshame.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLj3Bsa__ng