My Pregnancy Journey

Africa has the highest rate in adolescent pregnancies, HIV infections and birth deaths, a factor that affects the health, education and earning potential of millions of African girls. With 1 out of 4 women having a fatal outcome, an outcome that could have been prevented.

And this is the exact reason that motivated us to create our educational pregnancy mobile solution called, 'My Pregnancy Journey'.

The only other pregnancy solutions in Africa are sms solutions or are internationally based apps that are not focused on Africa or any other third world country in the world.

With technology growing at a faster rate than ever and becoming the way of life, our comprehensive app brings pregnancy and technology together.

All women and babies matter. We aim to educate and empower all mothers with knowledge, skills and the starting blocks they need to raise more sustainable societies. 

By 2050 a quarter of the world’s population will be African, yet this sector of educational pregnancy information has yet to be achieved.

According to the UNFPA, maternal deaths would be reduced by about two-thirds, if the needs for modern educational pregnancy information and maternal and newborn health care were met. Investing in educational information and improved maternal health care brings many benefits including reduced risks of complications and improvement in health for mothers and their children. Evidence shows that women who are better educated tend to have healthier children.  All of these invests bring significant benefits and effects not only for women and girls but also their children, families, communities and their country.

Generally, a lower level of information limits our decision making.

Women die as a result of complications during and following pregnancy and childbirth. Most of these complications develop during pregnancy and most are preventable or treatable. 

The major complications that account are severe bleeding, infections, high blood pressure during pregnancy, complications from delivery and unsafe abortion. The remainder are caused by or associated with diseases such as malaria, and AIDS during pregnancy. We cover all of these topics in our app plus so much more

We developed an educational app for pregnant women, our app is available on both app stores, Android and iOs.  All the research, content, videos and information was done by various specialist in the pregnancy industry.  

We took all of our own photos, illustrations on growing fetus and tummy, we wrote all of our own content, our app is beautiful, educates, informs, interactive and is unique. 

Each woman can personalize the app for themselves and use any of the 30 features to track her own pregnancy week by week. The app is filled with tons of information like emergency birth at home, weekly gynea and exercise videos, nutrition, medication, clinic card, BMI calculator, we have a section just for the dads, advice for adolescent and HIV mothers. Daily articles on all things pregnancy, here we have 287 different articles and topics. Weekly information on what is happening to moms body and the growing fetus. Baby kick counter, a journal to document pregnancy and print out. Directory listing, a whole section on all things labour. We have checklists. Weekly examples of sonar photos, 3D photos and 4D videos. Contraction counter. 

We plan on implementing community groups and a chat bot. 

Our solution aims to serve pregnant women from all walks of live. We initially only looked at Africa but since our app went live we have received interest from many other countries too. Even though the numbers are still very small, we see potential. We tried our very best to keep the information as simply and easy to understand, we tried to cover as many different topics so that we cater for as many different women as possible. We do realize that there is still much room for improvement and we will learn as we go. 

We cover a lot on STD's and how to protect yourself and your baby when infected with a specific STD. We cover a lot on HIV and how not to pass it on to your baby during breastfeeding etc. We have a directory listing that can be set up in any country, here we want to link the user to her closest clinic or healthcare workers. We wrote a lot on depression and emotional well-being during and after pregnancy. We also give the user a lot of labour and anesthetic information, and weekly videos done by a Gynecologist. 

I did a year of research on what solutions are available in Africa and the rest of the world. The only other solutions in Africa are either sms or whatsapp solution that only allows for a limited audience and reach. Or are internationally based pregnancy apps that are not focused on Africa or any other third world country in the world, they only focus on urban first world issues, where our solution looks at third world issues. Our solution is the first of its kind in Africa. We took all of our own photos, wrote all of our own content, filmed all of our own videos, drew our own illustrations, our app is authentic, unique, educates, is beautiful, its interactive and addresses issues. We only used the best local doctors and specialists in the industry that supported us with content, videos and information. 

There are 2/3 decent pregnancy apps from America and one from the UK, they dominate the market globally. But still nothing from any other parts in the world, ours is the first from the continent. 

We have also implemented some features that these other apps dont have, like a directory listing, a journal, exercise videos, medical test card, emergency birth at home, daily articles, and tons of other information about the challenges women face in Africa and any third world country. 

Our solution is a mobile software app that is available on both App stores and can be downloaded from any part in the world. We plan on creating community groups on our app, we have had a lot of requests from users for this function, this is to connect other pregnant women to each other. Currently our app is only available in English, but our next phases are to translate our app. We are also planning on creating a pregnancy chat bot that we want to plug into our community groups function, when we do this we will be the first pregnancy app to have this. We are also planning on extending our app into a Baby and Toddler app, we don't want to just leave our mothers at pregnancy. We want to guide them right through the most important years of their child's life. 

So our technology is based on current technologies, but the difference between ours is that ours go deeper into challenges many women around the world face, our solution is more relatable to women facing these challenges. 

Currently our solution looks 3 revenue streams, Freemium, Directory Listing and Big Data. But we know as we go our business model will change. We eventually want to make our app completely free and put our focus on expanding our directory listing into more countries and focus on Big Data. 

Only 1% of Big Data comes from Africa, we see a massive gap in the market. 

Since our app went live we have seem downloads from all over Africa and also from many other parts in the world. Even these numbers are still small, we see potential. We initially focused on the African market, but we now see that other women globally are also relating to our solution. We also get many downloads from India, America, UK and also other parts in the world. 

With our solution we aim to give women the tools and knowledge they need when it comes to raising the next generations. 

According to the UNFPA, maternal deaths would be reduced by about two-thirds, if the needs for modern educational pregnancy information and maternal and newborn health care were met. Investing in educational information and improved maternal health care brings many benefits including reduced risks of complications and improvement in health for mothers and their children. Evidence shows that women who are better educated tend to have healthier children.  All of these invests bring significant benefits and effects not only for women and girls but also their children, families, communities and their country.
Generally, a lower level of information limits our decision making.

Women die as a result of complications during and following pregnancy and childbirth. Most of these complications develop during pregnancy and most are preventable or treatable. Other complications may exist before pregnancy but are worsened during pregnancy, especially if not managed as part of the woman’s care. The major complications that account for nearly 75% of all maternal deaths are, severe bleeding, infections, high blood pressure during pregnancy (pre-eclampsia and eclampsia), complications from delivery, unsafe abortion. The remainder are caused by or associated with diseases such as malaria, and AIDS during pregnancy. 

In our app we cover all of these topics, the danger signs to be aware of. 

Other factors that prevent women from receiving or seeking care during pregnancy and childbirth are, poverty, distance, lack of information, inadequate services and cultural practices.

Our solution covers the lack of information and education. With the growth of our business and support, we aim to address more of the factors mentioned here. 

We have not yet received any funding or financial support and we had to find ways to complete our project. We have to self-fund our project up to date. Since we have invested all of our resources we don't have the means at the moment to spend on marketing our solution. The little bit that we have done so far has given us over 5000 downloads. 

With support we will be able to reach thousands of more women in Africa and the rest of the world. With our current global epidemic, eHealth has become more important than ever. Our project is perfect right now. We just need to get it out there now. So in the perfect situation we could serve so many women in the next year and even way more in the next five years.

We have big plans for our solution. It took us two years of putting the project together, now we just need to get it out there. 

It is a bold thing to say, but we truly want to change Africa one pregnancy at a time. In 2050 a quarter of the worlds population will be African, yet this very important sector of educational pregnancy information has yet to be achieved. We want to be that solution, we want to be that impact that changes millions of lives. We want to give women the tools and knowledge they need to raise more sustainable societies. 

We want to educate ourselves more on the needs of the people and adapt our solution to cater and serve these women and families. 

When life goes back to normal we want to visit adolescent pregnancy centers and educate the young girls and their communities on our solution. We want to get sponsors involved to donate clothes, products or anything they can that we can donate and give to these girls and women. We want to be on the ground and learn about what goes on in these communities. If we can reach out to their governments to come on board we will do just that.

We are extremely passionate about making a difference in as many women's lives as possible. We need help to achieve these goals, we can not do it alone. But we are determined to find the support we need to achieve our goals of change and impact.  

Our biggest barrier at the moment is money, mentoring, partnerships, experienced advice and guidance, and getting the ball rolling. We have invested all of our resources to get the project done and live. Now we need financial support and mentoring in getting our project out there. We need further development on our current app, we need to market our solution so that we can reach more women and girls. We need to hire people to assist with our directory listing part of our business, we need to get a data science person onboard to direct and guide us in the right direction when it comes to Big Data. We need to be on the ground to learn more about different communities and needs. We need the right partnerships. 

For financial, mentoring support we are applying to opportunities like these and also others. I am constantly looking and searching for open applications that fits our project and vision. 

We just signed on with Ayoba free chat app which is administered by MTN mobile in Africa, they have created a channel just for our platform. In this channel we give daily educational information about pregnancy and women's health. We hope to reach more people through this Ayoba platform. 

Our Facebook page reaches many people and we are currently sitting at almost 12 000 page likes. We get daily inbox messages from women and men asking various questions about pregnancy, clearly showing a massive need for information. 

We still need to work on our other digital platforms, but we need money to invest in marketing on these platforms. 

We have also looked out for opportunities with pharmaceutical companies and various other companies in the industry to partner with, we have a list of companies we want to approach. 

We did not select other so N/A.

Currently I am the only person seen as a full time employee. Because of our solution being technology based its been easy for us to outsource all the work to other contractors. Currently our development is being done by a development company. So is our social media, design, photography, filming, editing and content writing. We have a whole team of doctors, specialists and advisors that has written, filmed and proof read all of our content and information. 

I have been an entrepreneur in the pregnancy industry for the last 12 years. Being in the industry is how I identified this massive gap in the market. I sold my first business 3 years ago to peruse this very important project. Having had my first business, it has taught me valuable personal and business lessons, my first business was my school fees. I am a project manager at heart, and I know how to get things done, put a team together, delegate and get the job done. 

In 2019 I got picked by the World Health Organization as one of Africa's top 30 innovators, and our app also won the MTN app of the year award for the women in STEM category. I have had 3 diffirent radio interviews and our app has featured on many online publications. 

The other share holder has been practicing as a specialist doctor for the last 30 years and has first hand experience when it comes to pregnancy, especially in Africa.  

Our development team has developed many other successful application and are the best I have worked with. I am very satisfied with their capabilities, work ethic and we work great together as a team. They know me, understand me and they know how to execute the task. 

The rest of the team is still part-time, but as soon as the business can afford it, we will be able to hire more permanent staff into the company. 

We have not partnered with any other organizations as yet. 

Our first revenue stream is our in app purchases.  – Selling some information to the app user, Feemium.

The first 3 months of the app is for fee, all the features. After that only 6 out of the 30 features gets a pay-wall that charges the user  a once off amount of $2, the rest of the app still stays for free. This is B2C

Our second revenue stream is our directory listing that charges a small monthly fee to small business or service providers listing their services on the app. The directory listing can be set up in any country, for now we only have it in South Africa and already have a couple of listing on our directory.  This is B2B.

Our third revenue stream is collecting data and selling it to other big companies. We want to set-up the back end of our app to collect Big Data. USA owns 60% of the Big Data in the world, China 30% and the Europe 8%, Africa only owns 1% and this is where we see an opportunity with our app, to collect data and selling it. That is why we feel that it is important to cater for as many users as possible, the more users we can get to sign-up, the more data we can collect and sell, even if they don’t purchase our 6 features we still have their data we can use.  The selling of data is B2B. 

We are looking at a combination of all. We are currently busy with open applications for funding/grants, partnerships, mentors. 

We want to also approach bigger pharmaceutical, medical companies, hospitals and clinics to come on board.

We are also looking at approaching big corporate in the industry to come on board and sponsor goods.  

The challenge 'Maternal & Newborn Health' is exactly what our mission is all about. We are passionate about giving all women the first world pregnancy information we/they all need and deserve during this life changing time in any women's life. Women that don't know what is happening with their bodies or growing fetus are constantly stressing. Not all women can afford to visit a clinic or healthcare worker like many urban women can, but even the women that can afford it also don't always get the answers or knowledge they need. We created something that many pregnant women will and can relate to, we did relentless research and we cover many topics that pregnant women did't think or know about, our aim is to educate women, and their partners. 

This is a massive project and we have huge goals to achieve, and we can not do it alone, we need all the help we can get. We feel that Solve has got the experience to help us achieve these societal challenges that women face. We really want to become a global contender in this field and we want to create a platform that will truly help women, not just in Africa but where ever we can.  

We have many technology ideas that we want to implement, especially now after this global pandemic has effected so many people around the world. 

We believe that Solve has the support structure that we so badly need right now. 

We realize that our current business model will change, we do need some guidance and expert advice on that. 

When it comes to technology, we know there is so much more we can do and develop and we would also love to connect to brilliant tech minds that could give us more ideas and advice. 

We see that there is massive potential for our solution, now we just need to get it out there, our next phase is distribution and marketing. We definitely need support there. 

We self-funded our project, but are now at the stage where we are in serious need for financial support to help us reach all our goals. 

Exposure and marketing will help us get the word out there and hopefully the numbers up.

We looking for partnerships with organizations that's got the experience in mobile solutions, mobile operators. We are basically just looking for real people that are just as passionate as us and has the same vision. We have brought to project to where it is, now we need some experienced people to help us grow and scale our project and business and achieve our goals. We are positive and determined to make this a success, and we are looking for support from individuals, organizations or Solve members that are just as positive about women entrepreneurship and making a social impact. We have created the base, but we want to further create and innovate something really special that will potentially safe lives, we need the tech and business expertise to help us achieve this. 

The main focus of our solution is to empower women and girls. So many women and girls around the world don't have access to pregnancy guidance and information. Due to the lack of information there are many unfortunate outcomes, outcomes that could have been prevented. We have put so much love and dedication into our project, and giving women and girls a beautiful yet informative platform that will hold their hand during pregnancy and beyond. Since we have self-funded our project and finding creative ways to get our project done, the Innovation for Women Prize will give us that support and push that we need to get our solution to as many pregnant women in Africa and rest of the world as possible. It will give us the opportunity to do the work that we so passionately want to do and achieve. We have showed determination and resilience, and we have already overcome many obstacles in getting our project done. The Innovation for Women Prize will help us achieve many goals as a start-up, women owned company with a social cause. With our current global pandemic eHealth has become more important than ever. We feel that our solution fills many gaps in the market and that we speak to many women and girls that other solutions are not doing. Being part of this amazing prize will open up many opportunities and give us some freedom to be more innovative and create more innovative ways to improve our current technology.  

The main focus of our solution is to empower women and girls. So many women and girls around the world don't have access to pregnancy guidance and information. Due to the lack of information there are many unfortunate outcomes, outcomes that could have been prevented. We have put so much love and dedication into our project by giving women and girls a beautiful yet informative platform that will hold their hand during pregnancy and beyond. 

Since we have self-funded our project and had to find creative ways to get our project done, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Award will give us that support and push that we so badly need to get our solution to as many pregnant women in Africa and rest of the world as possible. It will give us the opportunity to do the work that we so passionately want to do and achieve. We have showed determination and resilience, and we have already overcome many obstacles in getting our project done. 

This award will help us achieve many goals as a start-up, women owned company with a social cause. With our current global pandemic eHealth and technology has become more important than ever. We feel that our solution fills many gaps in the market and that we speak to many women and girls that other solutions are not doing. 

Being part of this amazing award will open up many opportunities and give us the freedom to be more innovative and create more innovative ways to improve many pregnant women and girls lives globally. There are 130 million babies being born in the world every year, most of these births comes from third world countries. 

Currently there are NO pregnancy App that focuses on the issues that these women face, Our solution does. With this award we can create a bigger pregnancy echo-system in vulnerable communities in Africa and also other parts in the world. We want and are going to be that solution that women can rely on during this life changing time in their lives. 

Our future phases are to also create a Baby and Toddler app that will support these vulnerable women with all the things they need to know during the first most important years of their child’s life. 

 Women and girls in vulnerable communities are still being left out on many things, digital exclusion, and education due to cultural or religious believes. Women and girls need to be empowered and given the tools when it comes to raising more sustainable communities. 

When you reduce child mortality, the need to have fewer children will increase, the better education for the children they have and this will create happier and more prosperous families. To empower all women is to create a prosperous society. For disabled women and girls, we have already created videos on our current app, but we plan on creating more educational videos. 

We have Big goals and dreams for change. 

AFRICA TO THE WORLD'...