What is the name of your organization?
Audere Africa
What is the name of your solution?
Self-care Anywhere: AI for HIV
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
AI-powered sexual and reproductive health solution for stigma-free support via WhatsApp for education, self-testing, mental health & linkage to care
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Johannesburg, South Africa
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
ZAF
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
South Africa faces a dual crisis: alarmingly high HIV rates among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) and significant cuts to HIV and TB program funding, including potential PEPFAR withdrawal. AGYW are twice as likely to acquire HIV as their male peers[https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/documents/2024/2024-unaids-global-aids-update-adolescent-girls-young-women], due to stigma, lack of youth-friendly services, and socio-economic inequality. South Africa has one of the highest HIV burdens globally, with 800 AGYW acquiring HIV each week [https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2025/february/20250225_1-1-million-people-treatment-south-africa].
Now, health systems are strained, clinicians are overstretched, and global funding is receding—placing HIV prevention progress at serious risk. Meanwhile, youth increasingly seek answers and support online, yet digital platforms often lack the trustworthiness, safety, and connection to care they need. Without accessible, personalized, and integrated approaches, thousands will go undiagnosed, untreated, or disengaged. The problem is systemic and urgent: it affects millions of young people globally, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Our solution—Self-Care from Anywhere—meets young people where they are with AI-powered, locally grounded, and clinically integrated tools that guide them from questions to care, safely and on their terms.
What is your solution?
The Self-Care from Anywhere program addresses this urgent need by delivering private, empathetic health support through WhatsApp, backed by AI. It offers on-demand education, self-testing guidance, and seamless linkage to real clinicians—reducing stigma and closing critical care gaps for adolescent girls and young women. On the provider side, an AI-powered Clinical Portal equips clinicians with real-time access to automatically generated clinical summaries of patient/AI conversations, ML powered risk stratification, longitudinal records, AI verified self-test results, and the ability to reach out directly to patients over Whatsapp. These tools streamline triage, reduce administrative burden, provide information critical to quality care delivery—helping clinicians respond more efficiently and focus on the youth who need them most. Designed for low-lift customisation, scalability, cost-effective operations and maintenance, and interoperable with other digital health tools, the AI platform underlying this program enhances care delivery while safeguarding access for vulnerable populations amid mounting resource constraints.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Self-Care from Anywhere is available for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in South Africa (SA), expanding to all youth across the country. This summer, tailored versions will launch for adults living with HIV in SA, as well as for female sex workers/edge of sex work in Zimbabwe. These populations share common challenges: stigma at healthcare facilities and significant social and economic barriers to accessing HIV prevention/treatment. Co-designed with each community, the solution meets people where they are—on WhatsApp, a platform they already use—to deliver private, empathetic, and trusted health support. By offering accessible information, self-care tools, and seamless linkage to real clinicians, this digital-first approach promotes autonomy, reduces stigma, and enables timely access to care. It creates a safe, ethical, and responsive system that empowers people to manage their health on their own terms. Safety is ensured via cost-effective, scalable means through an Automated M&E service which evaluates accuracy, local relevance, and performance across a range of metrics. The M&E service includes automatic sampling for human-in-the-loop review, real-time flags for harm scenarios, and 24/7 resilience via a range of hot swappable language models.