Growing up, Asha Abbas, a 17 year old from Tanzania, noticed that many young Tanzanians were not getting adequate sex education. Realizing the health risk Tanzanian teenagers face as a result of being ill-informed, where young Tanzanian women are at a higher risk of contracting HIV than men, she was inspired to found Aurateen.
Aurateen is an online platform which educates teenagers about sex by raising awareness about the health risks–especially with the growing trend of having ‘sugar daddies’. Annually, she hosts two seminars, drawing youth and health practitioners from far and near. They provides counseling services both online and in person, working with medical practitioners and youth experts to educate about STDs and other sexually related topics such as cervical cancer.
Asha’s venture has made many impactful strides within it few years of existence. It presently employs 10 people, her website pulls in over a hundred questions on a regular, and her seminars bring in over 100 participants.
Asha intends to expand all over Tanzania, reaching out to over 100,000 teenagers in the next five years. She plans on achieving this by creating interesting youth magazines and establishing a confidential sms response system, increasing the access to sex education among many young people.
“Through my project, many teenagers are making wiser decisions knowing the risks, the effects, and how to protect themselves from different sexual health issues.” – Asha Abbas.
