Meet AskNivi
Our new smart chatbot has conversations with women who are curious about reproductive health. It's an improvement over older approaches that simply told women about it.
Say you’re a woman in need of family planning
But where you live, wherever that may be, the misinformation about family planning, the myths and misconceptions, are everywhere. You can’t talk to your parents or even some of your friends because “birth control” is a taboo topic. You can’t just walk into a drug store to pick some up, as the supply of birth control to your town or city is erratic or priced well above your budget. Even if you are one of the privileged few with a data-enabled smartphone, connectivity is spotty and data unaffordable, making your research on the subject hard. If you were this woman, wouldn’t you want a trusted, smart friend to talk to? A friend who could help you figure out the best path forward – and not only help you get on that path, but be there to answer the questions that you will invariably have weeks or months later.
We think of AskNivi, the chatbot we launched last year, as that friend.
AskNivi is a personalized and free SMS chatbot that has conversations with women who are curious about birth control, instead of just telling them about it. Wherever a woman may be on her personal reproductive health journey – no kids, a few kids, or whichever chapter of her life she’s living – AskNivi is able to meet her where she is and offer personalized advice and recommendations.
All a woman needs is a phone. She texts AskNivi and we answer her questions or recommend her to the appropriate products or services.
Some users are immediately ready for birth control, and AskNivi helps them connect with local providers or products (that they can then rate after the visit). Other users are at an earlier stage of their reproductive journey, so Nivi offers motivational messaging, digitally-delivered financial assistance, and other support to overcome barriers to behavior change. In turn, Nivi gets better insight in how contraceptive decision-making happens in light of someone’s financial situation, partner and social support, distance to contraceptive services, and other factors.
Our goal is a robust one – we expect to reach 60,000 users in Kenya by December. We’re already working with county governments, ZanaAfrica, Well Told Story, and JHPIEGO.
We’re excited to see how we can help women — and utilizing what they are telling us now to help change future generations of women and their views (and access) to reproductive services.
In closing, we always love to hear from you. As a reminder, there are multiple ways to keep in touch:
Our Facebook page shares Nivi user stories
Our Twitter account posts relevant news and conferences
And, of course, I’m always here to answer your questions! (sidd@nivi.io)
Here’s to 2018,
Sidd Goyal, CEO
In other (quick) news:
Researchers have found, in a review of large cohort datasets, that long term use of the IUD is associated with lower incidence of cervical cancer. As this Guardian story points out, although the biological mechanism remains unknown, there is a working assumption that the IUD acts to reduce inflammation, a key initiating process in many cancer pathways.