Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Abebe has been working as a senior nurse at the Abay Medium clinic in Addis Ababa for more than 14 years. Several years ago, Tiko approached the clinic as part of outreach across Addis Ababa to find partners to help address rising unwanted pregnancy rates among adolescent girls and young women across the city. “The area where the clinic is located has many low-income families and more are unable to get the money required for sexual and reproductive health services such as injections and pills,” says Abebe. “Due to a lack of money, they tend to miss follow-up appointments and don’t follow their treatment, which has caused unwanted pregnancies.” In Ethiopia, more than a third of pregnancies are unplanned due to an unmet need for contraceptive care.
In partnership with Tiko, Abebe’s clinic has been working within the community to provide both short and long-term family planning methods that are enabling more people to take control of their health and future. Tiko works by connecting adolescents and young people to quality, established public and private clinics and pharmacies within their own communities, so that they can choose when, where and how they meet their sexual and reproductive health needs. Community mobilisers onboard young people – Tiko clients – onto the platform, using either a phone or physical card, meaning that clients can access free healthcare without any need for technology. To encourage repeat visits, Tiko mobilisers will nudge clients and provide appointment reminders.
Once on the platform, clients have the opportunity to seek care from a variety of health care providers, such as the Abay Medium Clinic where Abebe works. These providers often partner with Tiko to benefit from demand generation and the ability to reach target audiences. They also receive direct training, capacity-building and support through Tiko.
“As a healthcare professional, the Tiko project has helped our community tremendously. Our clinic has worked in the community for a very long time and Tiko has generated a great demand. The clinic’s name is now well known in the community,” says Abebe. He has noticed a sizable behavior change since working with Tiko. More young people are seeking sexual and reproductive health services than ever before. Girls is his community are able to access the care they want to focus on what is important to them, whether that be their work, education or family.
Tiko has been active in Ethiopia since 2019, specifically in Addis Ababa, unlocking access to free care across family planning, but also menstrual hygiene management. Tiko plans to extend its reach beyond the capital to the cities of Hawassa and Arba Minch, in order to have facilitated close to a million health services for young people by 2027.
This story was written by Tiko, with consent from Abebe.
