WAAD

Information for preventing and responding to diarrhoeal disease

Diarrhoeal disease remains a leading cause of death among children under five worldwide, and it weighs heavily on children’s health across Africa, including Tanzania.

Safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, and handwashing with soap can reduce the risk. Several factors contribute to diarrhoeal disease in children, among them the mother’s knowledge of illness and hygiene and the timing at which breastfeeding began. WAAD helps mothers learn these preventive practices and understand how to respond when a child becomes ill.

Starting without installing a separate application

WAAD runs inside WhatsApp. No separate application needs to be installed, and mothers begin inside a tool they already use every day.

Where storage and data allowances are tight, that difference decides whether the service gets used at all.

Content on a sound footing

The content draws on the WHO’s Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation approach (PHAST).

Associate Professor Hidenori Harada of the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University, supervises the content. He researches water and sanitation across Africa and Asia, and his guidance shapes the material and features to local conditions.

Designed to be sustained

Learning alone does not change behaviour. WAAD provides challenges designed on gamification principles so that preventive behaviour can be sustained without strain.

Mothers who keep learning and acting receive mobile credit as a reward.

Working with Shionogi

We run this service in collaboration with Shionogi & Co., Ltd. as a demonstration in Tanzania, with the aim of educating families on preventing diarrhoeal disease.