In Zambia, more than half of the population is under 18 years old, and the teen pregnancy rate is startlingly high (over 30% of women are pregnant by 18). Yet traditional methods of family planning services failed to reach teens. Our challenge was: how might we make sexual health accessible to teens?
My team and I spent several months immersing ourselves in the lives and aspirations of Zambian youth in order to co-design a multi-touch point experience around birth control and reproductive health.
As a result, we created was a full service, teen-only outreach & clinic experience, which has served 11,000 patients to date, throughout three countries.
We flipped the conversation about birth control
from side-effects to stories. We created the Divas
— five inspirational characters, each of whom
highlight a different contraceptive method, by
explaining it’s characteristics and qualities.
Previous services made reproductive health feel
sterile and intimidating, but the Divas help teens
relate to the topic, yet still provide the facts.