PADÍTech

PADÍ

PADÍTech

An offline-capable, WhatsApp-integrated platform connecting women to localized menstrual/maternal care via AI + volunteer doctors in 50+ languages.

Los Angeles, CA, USA

NGA

Nonprofit

Across the globe, 1.8 billion women still lack access to reliable menstrual and maternal healthcare. In Africa, nearly half of the population—43%—lacks internet access (ITU, 2024), making it even harder to reach essential services. In Nigeria alone, more than 12 million women have to travel over 10 kilometers just to access basic care. Faced with this gap, many turn to WhatsApp to seek health information, but often receive dangerously inaccurate or unvetted advice (GSMA, 2024). This crisis is compounded by stigma and systemic neglect. A recent survey found that 68% of Nigerian healthcare workers dismiss menstrual or maternal health concerns as overreacting (WellNest, 2023), and mental health issues are routinely brushed aside—especially for adolescent girls and women in rural communities. Language barriers and digital exclusion further limit access to tools designed without local context in mind. Even where there are doctors willing to volunteer, they often lack platforms to reach the people who need them most. Our work is focused on closing these gaps. We aim to connect women with trustworthy care in their own language, in a way that respects their dignity and recognizes the complexity of the challenges they face every day.

Our solution, PADITech+, is a community-centered care platform that meets women where they are—both literally and digitally. It uses WhatsApp, a tool already trusted and widely used across Nigeria, to provide health triage through a multilingual AI that can understand and respond to local dialects, including slang and regional expressions. This AI identifies urgent health needs and connects users with qualified local or volunteer doctors directly through the WhatsApp platform. For users in areas with limited or inconsistent internet access, PADITech+ includes offline access features built into our web-based application. This allows women and girls to access critical health information, care instructions, and self-help tools even when they are temporarily disconnected from the internet. These features ensure continuity of care and access to resources, whether someone is in a rural village or a conflict zone. The interface is designed to cache essential resources, like menstrual care instructions or mental health guidance, so they remain available without needing constant connectivity. To make healthcare easier to access, we use a blend of open-source AI (Llama 3), offline tech like Raspberry Pi, and simple, community-informed design.

PADITech+ serves women and girls between the ages of 10 and 50, especially those living in low-income, rural, or conflict-affected communities in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa. Many of these individuals are cut off from consistent healthcare due to distance, cost, language barriers, and social stigma. For young girls navigating menstruation or mental health challenges, and for mothers without reliable prenatal or postnatal care, the current system offers very little in the way of support. Our solution is built around their realities. It provides care that is not only easier to access but also more compassionate and culturally relevant. For instance, when a teenager messages “I no fit sleep” on WhatsApp, she isn’t dismissed—she’s connected to a Yoruba-speaking counselor who can help her explore what she’s going through, often within a couple of hours. Women who previously had to walk miles to clinics can now visit a nearby kiosk and receive information and products discreetly and without shame. PADITech+ transforms what healthcare looks and feels like in these communities. It replaces long journeys, shame, and misinformation with care, dignity, and trust—meeting women not just with answers, but with empathy.