2 Secondary school students have developed an app intended to help learners to deal with anger and frustrations anonymously.
Ayata Tracy and Veronica Njeri of Honorable John Njoroge Secondary School came up with the application to help teenagers to anonymously share their challenges with teachers and counsellors.
The motivation to develop the application came from the fact that teenagers often find it difficult to open up about their challenges for fear of being judged or condemned.
The two students worked closely with their teacher Roselyne Moraa to come up with My Confidant App. The app comes at a time when schools in Kenya are grappling with rising cases of indiscipline among learners.
The application allows the teenagers to key in their name or nickname and age, and then queue in their concerns.
The two student innovators run the application alongside volunteer professionals like doctors, counsellors and teachers who act as agents and help in putting up content. Issues raised by the students are addressed without them (subjects) feeling exposed.
Most of the students who have used the app to express their fears have mentioned sex as the number one concern in their lives, something that has remained a major challenge to them.
Many young girls spoke about being pregnant, a matter that has greatly affected the teenagers of this country, especially during the long Covid-19 break. For instance, 4,000 teen pregnancies were reported in Machakos County at around June last year.
The app is expected to help teenagers most of whom are afraid of speaking up about issues they face since most are not close to their parents and teachers.
With the help of My Confidant web application, Ayata and Njeri hope that teenagers will be able to deal with both physical and emotional changes that they face as well as fight depression.
