Sexual reproductive health has been top priority for 25-year-old Gaelle Igisubizo. Right from high school, her decision to be part of reproductive health advocacy and sensitisation has been intentional with a conviction that, the prevention of unintended pregnancies among adolescents and young adults is a priority that needs ardent measures.
This is why when she graduated from university last year, she decided to go full time, creating platforms that would help boys and girls access information about sexual reproduction and health.
She, hence, created Keza 3D Game, a gamification platform that educates its users about sexual reproductive health in a fun way.
Players are educated by this game through access to information, such as the causes of sex before marriage and its consequences.
The one who plays this game first and foremost has fun yet at the same time, accesses information on sexual reproductive health.
She explains that the game has three parts; one is the AI Chatbot (an automated robot) where one can ask any questions about sexual reproductive health.
There is also ‘Keza Quiz’ that tests the player’s knowledge about SRH while also educating them and it rewards with points for the fun part of the game.
"The quiz is the part where anyone using the app has to fill, you can’t play the game before answering the quiz, if the person on the quiz fails to answer the questions they can ask Chatbot for help, and after getting the required marks, they can go ahead and play the game,” she explains.
The third part is the game play, where Keza runs at different levels—these levels indicate the different obstacles girls face in life, for example ‘sugar daddies’ and peer pressure, among others.
"With this, you can be asked if you want to meet with a sugar daddy. You say yes or no, and they show you different consequences you meet such as pregnancy, dropping out of school or even death, depending on the choices you make,” she explains.
Igisubizo notes that through this game, the youth get to understand that their lives are in their hands, and that what they choose to make of it depends on them entirely.
"They know that they have the liberty to choose, and also understand that these choices have consequences. It is in this sense that the one playing the game realises that they are the ones who determine if they will be a better version of themselves or not,” she says.
Male engagement
When she was creating this app, Igisubizo says she put focus on boys believing that if we are to win the fight against teen pregnancies, men and boys need to be engaged and well informed too.
"Boys were our biggest target because they are the ones who like playing video games. I believe a boy who is well versed with sexual reproductive health helps a girl to be safe. The other thing, a girl can only get pregnant once a year but a boy can impregnate as many times as possible. So if we want to fight teen pregnancies, male engagement is really needed.”
She observes that most cases of teen pregnancies happen due to lack of enough information among young people, especially those in rural areas.
"Most of the cases are in rural areas where young people don’t have enough information. Some who are in urban areas know that if they had unprotected sex, they can go and take a morning after pill, which isn’t the case with most girls in villages,” she observes.
The other thing is poverty, she says, adding that many girls have fallen into temptation because of this. "But what’s needed is empowerment for girls such that they make wise decisions and stand firm in the choices they make.”
The government is working tooth and nail to combat this issue, however, Igisubizo calls on to parents to play their part in educating their children too.
"This is still a challenge, some parents don’t talk about these things with their children. It’s still a taboo to talk about sex, but at the end of the day, kids are having sex, so we need to talk to them so that they don’t get the wrong information from others. Also, some teachers are not well equipped to teach about sexual reproductive health, hence, need to be skilled in that,” she adds.
Last year, Keza 3D App won phase two of the Innovation Accelerator (iAccelerator), a mentorship driven acceleration programme, supporting young entrepreneurs with seed funding, training and skills development, to generate innovative solutions in response to challenges related to sexual and reproductive health, sexuality education, family planning, maternal health and other population development issues.