FEATURED - YAhealth: Improving health access for Rwandan youth

Community Health Boosters (CHB), a youth-led NGO focused on improving the healthy and wealthy well-being of the young people, has been at the forefront of innovative health promotion by leveraging digital tools and youth-friendly solutions. In partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)-Rwanda, CHB supported a five-day workshop hosted by RBC Rwanda in Musanze District from December 9 to 13, 2024. The workshop focused on the final validation of the redesigned YAhealth app content and other IEC materials for school health clubs, including the YAhealth Game and Adolescent Health Club Manual. This workshop aimed to assess the app's functionality, user interface, and overall impact, ensuring it aligns with the health needs and priorities of the youth. The goal was to empower young people to make informed decisions about their health and well-being. The workshop brought together the Health Promotion Technical Working Group (T.W.G), different RBC divisions, REB, CSOs, and UN agencies, to review and improve the app’s content and features, ensuring that they are age-appropriate, inclusive, and aligned with national health standards and priorities. ALSO READ: Why Rwandan adolescent mothers don’t seek psychosocial support The YAhealth app emerged as an innovative solution during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering reliable user-friendly, age-centred health information, and basic health support to young people. It is a youth-centered platform providing information on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRHR), mental health, Prevention of gender-based violence (GBV), Routine immunization, HIV prevention, Nutrition and Lifestyle, and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Developed through a Human-Centered Design (HCD) approach, the app ensures its relevance, accessibility, and inclusivity for young people. Its key features include tailored health information, a menstrual cycle tracker, self-mental health screenings, and interactive quizzes to make learning engaging. Additionally, the app offers a “Talk to Expert” feature, enabling real-time consultations with health experts, and a service location tracker that guides users to nearby health facilities. Recognising that not all youth have access to smartphones or internet connectivity, CHB developed the YAhealth hotline (2080) to complement the app. This toll-free service was developed after co-creation sessions with adolescents and young people to ensure it meets the needs of those in underserved communities. The hotline provides pre-recorded health messages, live consultations with experts, and guidance on accessing nearby health services, ensuring that every young person, regardless of their circumstances, can benefit from accurate, evidence-based health information. According to Samuel Niyomwungeri, the Programs Director at Community Health Boosters (CHB), the YAhealth app was designed to leverage the technology that young people already use to provide them with accurate and reliable health information. This eases the timely access to information, guidance, and support for young people in a confidential and non-judgmental way. “Recognising that many young people access the internet and social media platforms, where they may encounter misleading and unreliable health information, CHB sought to create a trusted platform that offers user and age-centered, evidence-based content,” he said. YAhealth addresses the health needs of youth and adolescents in different age groups—10 to 14, 15 to 19, and 20 to 24—ensuring that each group receives the most appropriate and relevant information. “The platform was designed to ensure that young people easily access accurate and reliable information so that they can make informed decisions, and with this workshop, we are focusing on ensuring that all the content aligns with the needs of young people and the nation’s health priorities,” he added. With over 23,600 active users, the app has proven effective in empowering young people with trusted knowledge, improving behaviors, and fostering healthier lifestyles. For instance, the YAhealth App ranked the 3rd best app among more than 2300 mobile apps during the environmental scan of mobile apps for promoting sexual and reproductive health of adolescents in low- and middle-income countries conducted by National Library of Medicine in Nov, 2023. Niyomwungeri also explained that the updated version of the app was redesigned in partnership with UNICEF, Rwanda Biomedical Center, and other distinguished stakeholders to improve user experience and content quality, making it more accessible for young people. “After this validation workshop, the app will be launched to the public and rolled out in schools and community networks across Rwanda to reach as many young people as possible. That is why we are calling for the engagement of different stakeholders in dissemination of the YAhealth app within their areas of interventions,” he added. ALSO READ: Close to 80 awarded during Youth Challenge Programme Building on the success of the YAhealth app and other youth-friendly resources like the YAhealth game, through the Ndinda Nige project, under the GIRL Programme, CHB has extended the use of these resources into schools to address issues such as school dropouts. In collaboration with the Ministry of Education, UNICEF Rwanda, and FCDO, among others, health clubs are being established in different primary schools across the country. These clubs equip upper primary students, particularly girls, with essential life skills, including SRHR education, HIV prevention, and mental health support, fostering inclusivity and addressing barriers like gender inequality, teenage pregnancy, and school dropouts. This workshop marked the final validation to refine these tools. Now fully reviewed and approved, the app and other resources are ready to be deployed nationwide, including across schools and communities, to empower Rwandan youth with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive. Jean Bosco Ntirenganya, Division Manager of Rwanda Health Communication Center at the RBC emphasised the importance of collaboration in health promotion efforts, adding that it is essential not only to target the right audience but also to ensure that the messages are appropriate and effective for each group. We may do our best as a government to communicate and provide health messages, but we have many partners, and we need to come together to review what we are communicating and make sure that the message we are sending to each group is helpful and has the potential to change their lives, he said. Ntirenganya highlighted the need for harmonisation to avoid duplication of efforts, making sure each partner is clear on who they are targeting, noting that while the government does its best to communicate health messages, working with various partners is crucial for success. ALSO READ: Innovation through decoupling and Africa’s place Julienne Mukayirege, Acting Director of the Special Needs and Inclusive Education Unit at REB, commended the YAhealth app for offering age-appropriate information on reproductive health and youth rights, underlining the importance of ensuring the content is accessible and clear for all users. “I love that this app provides adequate information tailored to youth’s age and helps them avoid many challenges, and I wish all the youth and schools could have access to this app so they can learn from it,” she said. One of the users of the YAhealth app, Laurie Ihirwe Sheja, highlighted how the app has helped her, particularly with period tracking, adding the app’s educational value, especially the Kinyarwanda articles, which helped her understand health topics in her native language. I used to use Flo, but YAhealth is simpler for cycle tracking; just inputting the days and getting predictions, it’s easier to express myself now, especially when talking to friends, and the app even has a feature where you can reach out to talk to expert or peers, which is really good,” she said.

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FEATURED - YAhealth: Improving health access for Rwandan youth