Project Lead(s): Felix Kimaru
Totohealth is delivering "The World Starts With Me" sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) information via SMS text messages to students and teachers at secondary schools in Kenya. The World Starts With Me (WSWM) curriculum developed by Rutgers, will be converted into SMSs (questions and answers) and offered to students in selected schools in 3 counties in Kenya (urban, semi-urban and rural). The SMS platform allows for two-way communication, permitting students and teachers to receive accurate, confidential, and non-judgmental answers, within 24 hours. This is an innovative adaptation responding to the local context in Kenya, where 1/3 of youth under 15 have had sexual intercourse, access to accurate SRHR information is scarce, cultural and societal sexual discourse is conservative, and mobile phone penetration is high at 90%. SMS allows for anonymous, confidential, non-judgemental discourse between vulnerable populations and comprehensive, evidence-based SRHR information, vetted by UNESCO, and implemented in 10 other countries over the last 10 years.