MERL Tech DC 2019

Every1Mobile’s U Afya programme is a digital community for young mothers and prospective mothers in low-income areas of Nairobi to learn, share and connect on a variety of topics related to health, nutrition, hygiene and motherhood.

In an effort to leverage the technology that our target audience possesses, Every1Mobile created the U Afya 10-Day Handwashing Challenge - a mobile habit-tracking solution optimised for the most basic web-enabled feature phone.

The technology leveraged self-reported actions, where users were required to perform a daily activity, then complete a single-question survey to log their challenge as completed. The challenges varied but were all rooted in the WHO “5 Moments” model.

The habit-tracker adopted the behaviour change approach employed by Unilever and Lifebouy in their “Way of Life” campaign, namely Awareness, Commitment, Reinforcement and Reward.