MIT Solve

Solution Overview & Team Lead Details

Solution name.

Khuska

Provide a one-line summary of your solution.

Khuska is an app for sexual education which is aimed at girls, adolescents, and women

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

According to UNICEF, in Peru, 13 out of every 100 female adolescents are already mothers or are pregnant. This is largely due to the lack of sexual education since it is a conservative country and these topics are taboo. For this reason, schools do not provide information on topics such as sexually transmitted diseases, birth control, and sexual consent. Also, most parents refuse to talk about these issues. In this sense, girls and adolescents do not have enough information to understand the changes related to their bodies, such as menstruation and how to prevent a future pregnancy.

Elevator pitch

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What is your solution?

Khuska is an app that allows you to access a variety of videos about information such as the menstrual period, contraceptive methods, self-esteem, consent in relationships, and how to avoid toxic relationships. In this sense, this app covers health in an integral way, since it takes into consideration the physical and mental health of girls, adolescents, and women. Likewise, it allows you to schedule an appointment with a leading professional on these issues since it happens that many times it is not so easy to access these services due to lack of money and time. This app brings together professionals in the areas of Medicine and Psychology, since women, girls and adolescents need advice in order to better their bodies, emotions, and also rights, since this information is not provided by schools or by parents. The technology it uses is based on basic functions that an app has.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

This solution is useful for girls, adolescents, and women in regions where there is insufficient access to information. Khuska will significantly impact their lives as it will allow them to know more about their bodies and thus be able to have more control over them. Currently, in countries like Peru and other developing countries, the States do not make enough efforts so that girls and adolescents have access to comprehensive sexual education. Also, these countries are conservative and parents do not talk about these issues with them. All this means that 13 out of every 100 Peruvian adolescents are pregnant. Obviously, this is a worrying situation because they should be studying and continue living the stage of life that corresponds to them. Also, in many of these countries abortion is not legal, so they are forced to have a clandestine abortion and many of them die in the process. Khuska will address this problem as it will serve as a secure source of information, nowadays it is very easy to access information on these issues on the internet; however, not everything is safe. In this sense, the app will provide quality information prepared by professional experts in the field. Thus, adolescent pregnancies will be foreseen, but not only that, but it is also important to talk about consent issues, since this is not taught in schools either, and often it is not reported, since these girls, adolescents, and women do not know if it was abuse or not. Then Khuska will be able to teach them about these topics.

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

Currently, I don't have a team for the development of this project, it's just me. My name is Brigitte Cabanillas, I am a Peruvian law student. I consider myself a responsible, committed, and passionate person in everything I do. I have been a scholarship holder of the Millennium Fellowship 2022 program, This is a program that grants students recognition from the United Nations since it accompanies the creation of a project that promotes the sustainable development goals (SDGs) on the university campus and carries it out. My project in the said program was aimed at women. In that sense, I also have experience leading projects in favor of women. Also, I am a woman and I know what are the problems that we constantly face

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

Yes, I have investigated the needs of Peruvian girls, adolescents, and women. If I have offered myself as a volunteer, together with my university I have been working on a project to give talks on sex education in schools so that they can access this information. When we asked them about the way in which they could get information on this subject, most said that it was the Internet or through the advice of their older friends; However, not all the information is reliable, which is why the information is systematized and provided by specialists.

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Improving healthcare access and health outcomes; and reducing and ultimately eliminating health disparities (Health)

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team located?

Lima, Perú

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Brigitte Cabanillas

More About Your Solution

If your solution has a website or an app, provide the link here:

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What makes your solution innovative?

Khuska provides a significantly improved approach to the lack of access to sexual education and emotional health information, which is not taught in schools. Also, on the internet we can find endless information; however, this is not always reliable, which is why it is very dangerous. I think it would be a very useful app and would be widely distributed among the Peruvian public and other third-world countries. Within the health app market, Khuska would become very relevant, due to its two professional video functions and the possibility of scheduling a virtual appointment with one of them.

What are your impact goals for the next year, and how will you achieve them?

In case I win and receive financing and help to develop my project. I believe that I will be able to achieve a series of impacts. First of all, I plan to disseminate the app through various media and student feminist movements that are in charge of talking about the importance of sexual education, in this way we will make the Peruvian public aware of the product. Likewise, it is planned to hire a series of people in charge of the image and marketing area in order to generate more publicity. In addition, it will seek to form strategic alliances with organizations that watch over women's health. All this will significantly impact the lives of millions of women who can now have access to quality information in order to learn more about their bodies, this will help reduce child pregnancies and also help girls, adolescents, and women to recognize when they have been victims. or not of a violation through the dissemination and teaching of consent.

Describe the core technology that powers your solution.

My solution is an app, which will have basic functions such as video storage, chats and the option to contact a professional if necessary. It is sought that this app can be in Android and Ios operating systems

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

Software and Mobile Applications

In which countries do you currently operate?

Peru

How many people does your solution currently serve, and how many do you plan to serve in the next year? If you haven’t yet launched your solution, tell us how many people you plan to serve in the next year.

I haven't launched this project yet; However, I hope that in the next year through advertising and various strategic alliances we can impact the lives of at least 10,000 women, who would be users of this app.

What barriers currently exist for you to accomplish your goals in the next year?

Developing an app is not easy, I need to have people who know how to do it in the best possible way, that would be the first barrier. Likewise, programmers, electrical engineers, publicists, among other people must be hired so that the project develops in the best possible way. I think one of the biggest limitations I have right now is money. I believe that there are not so many legal barriers to developing this type of app, I also believe that it would be an innovative app in the market, so it could compete with others.

Your Team

Business Model