Medical student sets up social media network to help other women

“My work is going global now. I have a website to reach out to women on and off campus. Campus life is often about books, alcohol, drugs, and sex – all of which I have managed to control by keeping busy with my WhatsApp groups,” said Janet Ogega.

Ogega, 28, is a final-year student in medicine at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. The WhatsApp groups she is talking about are a growing support network she has established over time and which are rooted in her university education and her own experiences when she was pregnant and gave birth. Through the groups, she supports women with information about reproductive health issues.

By reaching out to communities, Ogega has been building a social responsibility bridge between the university and the communities that are benefiting from her extra-curricular work. She believes that more students should be sharing their knowledge as volunteers.

Ogega told University World News that working with an international organisation like PATH, a non-profit that wants to bring about health equity across the world, has helped her grow her social media network, which includes groups with men and women.

The starting point

The idea for the service started when Ogega was pregnant with her first child in 2017 after graduating with a diploma in clinical medicine.

She gave birth at a leading private health facility in Kenya and the doctors in charge told her that her baby was ‘blue’ and needed ICU care – something she doubted.

She later discovered that this was an effort to squeeze money out of her. Fortunately, she did her homework about the facility. This, coupled with information presented in her studies on the pitfalls of private health care in Kenya, showed her some of the challenges you may encounter as a soon-to-be or young mother.

Around the same time, her neighbour (not a student) created a WhatsApp group called, ‘Pregnancy and Nursing Mums’ and asked Janet to join it.

Women kept asking her questions, and she responded. They encouraged her to create a more professional group and more women from the community, one by one, invited each other through a link.

She added some herself, including people who were interested in starting consulting her about aspects related to sexual reproductive health and maternal health. It then hit her that this gap needed to be plugged, that community women and uninformed young students needed help and that she wanted to empower them.

This is how the WhatsApp groups started, first one, then two … and now 20.

She added that she is helping women beyond Kenya as her WhatsApp groups include women from South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Sierra Leone, India and Qatar.

Mentorship

“The first, second, and third WhatsApp groups only had a few other medical students who joined. I challenged them to join so that we could help to address issues facing women together but I realised they didn’t have the patience to respond to every issue raised by women. They are followers [and they] are learning, too,” Ogega said.

She explained that she chose to help women because many of them suffer silently and cannot afford to see a doctor because of the expensive consultation fees.

“Women go through a lot in life, hence the need for constant empowerment and knowledge development. I try to use the simplest language to ensure that they all understand the issues they raise, ranging from child care to maternal health, sexual reproductive health, pregnancy and fertility.”

To ensure that she tackled the concerns raised by women, Ogega said that she mostly employs real-life experiences, some her own, and others from different mums, and also the knowledge she has acquired at the university.

Jeremiah Mwangi, a fourth-year student of clinical medicine at the Kenya Methodist University, said that Ogega has mentored him.

“When it comes to health issues, especially reproductive health, I have learned so much through the forums that I have created a forum, too, to share with others who are willing to learn,” he said.

“She responds so well to issues raised and she is patient. Some pregnant mothers in the forums, including students, are benefiting from her free service … hers is all about knowledge sharing,” he added.

Community outreach

Ichipi Joy, a Nigerian-based mini-business trader, said that she acquired a lot of knowledge through the WhatsApp groups.

When she fell pregnant she had endless questions and Ogega responded to them accordingly until she had a safe delivery. She also learned so much about general child care. “I must say that she has done so much for me and my baby,” she said.

As in any other job, Ogega has had her fair share of challenges, for instance responding to too many chats going back and forth, and sometimes she had to stop midway and resume later, only to be confronted with more and more messages.

To tackle this, she has created a blog and has written short, easy to understand articles answering frequently asked questions. This has reduced the number of questions, as mothers are reading the blogs.

Professor Walter Jaoko, the director of the Kenya AIDS Vaccine Initiative Institute of Clinical Research (KAVI-ICR) at the University of Nairobi said that students need full-time mentorship so that they, in turn, can help their communities.

Jaoko said: “I believe the greatest benefit to the students is the dissemination of correct information in all fields, including sexual reproductive health.

“That is what we have done using a mobile app called RADA UON [University of Nairobi].”

The RADA app, according to the website of the University of Nairobi, is a digital innovation on health literacy that aims to help youths solve various life challenges, especially on sexual reproductive health.

Jaoko added that offering community women with relevant information will go a long way in terms of empowerment.

Ogega explained that “universities should teach beyond anatomy”.

“They should empower students [to practise] community outreach in matters [such as] health, and encourage students to be more useful beyond lecture halls. Many women out there need help and students can make it happen even through voluntary services.”

She added that young girls, especially university students, need to stay engaged and connect with communities because that would forge effective development partnerships.

“Unfortunately, our universities have [become] stuck on teaching and leaving it at that. If only such activities were encouraged through meetings, training and group activities, then universities would help change lives fully,” she said.

As a final year student, Ogega intends to continue empowering women through a mobile app (docseeyou app) that will have relevant information about sexual reproductive health and maternal health.

She also intends to lecture on health matters and establish an affordable private health facility to cater to women’s needs.