The Form Ni Gani?
Ideathon competition came to an exciting close on the evening of Friday, February 14, at the Alliance Française grounds.
Ahenda Olwal, the overall winner of the Ideathon Awards Concert poses with her dummy text message for her cash prize of Sh100,000 on February 15, 2020 at the Alliance Française in Nairobi.Twenty university teams which took part in the competition went home with lots of cash prizes courtesy of Form Ni Gani?
Through this competition, the initiative hopes to make young people more receptive to their contraceptive needs.
The four scenarios are
Uwakilishi,
Utegemeo,
Upendeleo, and
Ukaidi.
Currently, contraception services in Kenya are largely funded by donors and foreign governments.
At the event,
Form Ni Gani? released the Kenya in 2030: Young Voices on Future Scenarios and Contraception report. The report proposes four possible future scenarios for Kenya based on the current contraception trends.
The Spoken Word artist Teardrops on stage at the Ideathon Awards Concert held at Alliance Francaise Gardens on February 15, 2020.The ideathon competition, which was launched in November 2019, required the different teams to create a solution for contraception that would fix Kenya's family planning system by the year 2030. The solutions were expected to be financially achievable and have a countrywide reach across all social groups.
The top five finalists in the competition offered solutions that focused on fixing existing health systems, creating equal access to contraception and integrating technology in family planning services and provision.
The winning idea from Ahanda Olwal, a contestant from Mombasa, earned her the top prize of Sh100,000. In her teary acceptance speech, Olwal said that the deaths of three of her close friends due to abortion and childbirth complications inspired her to join the competition.
She pointed that with better and equal access to contraception, the lives of many such young women can be saved.
Kaskazini performing at the Ideathon Awards Concert held at Alliance Francaise Gardens on February 15, 2020.
The Awards went smoothly where each of the four finalists were awarded a Ksh.25,000 cash prize . Team Madikizela(USIU) being the first runners-up won the People's Choice vote after wiining the hearts of the adoring audience with their stellar perfomance.The other teams were team Dollarman Fatinato (2nd runner-up), team Campus Magazine (3rd runner-up) and team University of Nairobi Film Club (4th runner-up).The panel of judges for the competition included Katindi Sivi-Njonjo, a policy analyst, Andrew Awiti, a strategy consultant, Nerima Wako, a political analyst and
Juliani a performing artiste.
After the awards ceremony, the guests were treated to a much-awaited concert experience with different performers ranging from spoken word artistes such as Teardrops to musicians such as
Kaskazini,
Gravitti and
Knamics.
Changing the narrative on contraception
Contraception is mostly reserved for married people and women continue to bear the burden of contraception in most relationships.
One worrying consequence of inadequate/unfair access to contraception is an increase in the number of fatalities resulting from unsafe abortions.
