Kem

Overview

Kem is an AI-powered chatbot creating a safe, judgment-free space for people in Nigeria to ask questions about sexually transmitted infections breaking down the stigma that keeps millions from seeking the sexual health information they need.Across Nigeria, stigma and misinformation around STIs remain significant barriers to care, leaving many people particularly women without accurate guidance on prevention, symptoms, and treatment. Limited access to non-judgmental health services means that questions go unasked and risks go unaddressed.Kem meets users where they are: online, in private, and in their own language. The chatbot communicates in both English and Pidgin to reach a wider audience, and was built with safety, equity, and robust data privacy at its core. Technical experts guided every stage of development from dataset curation to defining equity metrics with multiple rounds of user testing to ensure the tool was accessible, culturally relevant, and genuinely effective.The impact has been significant. During user testing, participants described Kem as highly educational and informative. Its broader health ecosystem has contributed to saving over 52,000 maternal and 31,000 neonatal lives, and the project is advancing understanding of how responsible AI can be deployed in sensitive health contexts to drive real change.