By Anthony Adongo Apubeo, GNA
Bolgatanga, Sept. 27, GNA – Two students at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered WhatsApp chatbot to provide adolescents, particularly girls, with private and accessible information on sexual and reproductive health.
The chatbot, named SafeSiso, meaning “Safe Big Sister,” was developed by Ms Munayya Musah Seidu and Mr Abdul Aziz Alhassan, to provide young people aged between 10 and 19 years with a confidential platform to ask questions on sensitive issues such as menstruation, relationships, pregnancy and other sexual and reproductive health concerns.
The innovation was launched in Navrongo in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality, as part of efforts to address adolescent pregnancy and other reproductive health challenges by providing young people with accurate information and linking them to appropriate support services.
The SafeSiso initiative emerged from the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) Ghana AI for Her Future Hackathon and is being implemented in partnership with UNFPA, with funding support from the Government of Canada under the Adolescent Girls Programme.
One can access the services by saving the dedicated contact number 0559883060 on their mobile phones and have a conversation in the chatbot just like how they communicate with a regular WhatsApp contact.
The developers of SafeSiso believed that the chatbot could complement existing adolescent health interventions by providing young people with a private first point of contact for information and referrals.
Ms Seidu, the Co-Founder of SafeSiso, said the initiative was conceived in response to the difficulty that many young people faced in discussing sexual and reproductive health issues with parents, teachers and other trusted persons because of stigma and cultural taboos.
She said the chatbot allowed adolescents to initiate conversations privately through WhatsApp and receive information on issues they might otherwise be afraid or uncomfortable to discuss openly.
“When a young girl between the ages of 10 to 19 can freely have conversation with the system about menstruation, relationship or pregnancy, it helps to create a safe space for her to ask questions,” she said.
Ms Seidu said SafeSiso was designed to detect conversations involving sensitive reproductive health issues and, where necessary, connect users to verified health and support services.
She explained that the platform had a referral component that could link users to health professionals and other service providers for further assistance when their concerns required human intervention.
She said they were currently engaging some schools in the Upper East Region, with plans to expand the engagements to other schools and regions to equip young people with its usage.
Ms Seidu said the platform could also be accessed by users outside the Upper East Region, provided they had a phone and internet connection.
She encouraged adolescents to make use of the platform and help create awareness among their peers, saying it was intended to provide a safe avenue for young people to ask questions they might otherwise be afraid to ask.
Ms Theresa Fosuaa Yeboah, the Innovation Specialist, UNFPA, said the innovation was important because adolescents often faced barriers such as distance from health services, misinformation, stigma and fear of asking key questions.
She said data from the Ghana Health Service showed that 53,415 adolescent girls aged between 10 and 19 years had recorded pregnancies nationwide between January and July 2026.
“SafeSiso is not about technology for technology’s sake. It is about using innovation to put the right information in the hands of girls at the right time, in a way that feels safe and accessible to them,” she said.
She said the platform was designed to serve as a bridge between adolescents seeking information and human support services when their concerns required further intervention and not intended to replace teachers, counsellors, health professionals or other trusted adults.
The launch brought together students of the Navrongo Senior High School, St John’s Integrated Senior High School and Navrongo Community Nursing Training College.
GNA
Edited by Caesar Abagali/ Christabel Addo
27 Sept. 2026
Reporter: Anthony Adongo Apubeo