Woman creates app to inform about women’s health

Ivy was inspired by her own situation, when she was pregnant, and also by her mother’s, who struggled with cancer. In Bangladesh is hard to have access to information related to women’s health.

Maya Apa’s experts can help the user to know more on the following information: Medical, Health & Well-being, Legal, Psycological, Social, Lifestyle and Fitness, being available 24/7.

It works by having the user sending queries (via text, voice or image), then the queries are matched to relevant experts, and the experts reply, and finally the follow-up and engagement is made.

“The greatest barrier to accessing health care related information for women in Bangladesh is social. Stigma and taboo have a profound impact on the ways in which women access health care, or seek legal counseling or identify their emotional needs. In Bangladesh, women’s health and bodies are always discussed within the context of pregnancy, and prior to that it is as though their health is not an issue. Maya provides a platform where women can freely speak about their emotional, medical, legal, and social needs anonymously, without being judged”, said Shahana Siddiqui, Head of Content and Communications at Maya.

The site was launched in 2010 and then it also became an app. “Since launching the first iteration of Maya nearly five years ago, we have learned a lot about the knowledge that women seek out and how they go about finding it,” the inventor explained.

Ivy founded a startup around the app, which is free and available for Android. The platform can also be accessed via web.

Adapted from: http://nyti.ms/1OyOODJ

More info: https://maya.com.bd/#/