BRAC is going to scale up its investment in mobile app Maya Apa to ensure quality information and counselling service delivery for a greater number of people. Besides, BRAC’s urban development programme will implement a pilot project where Maya Apa app will be used to give services to 50,000 women garment factory workers.
This new BRAC-Maya initiative was announced February 15, with a signing ceremony organised at a hotel in the Dhaka city.
Maya Apa is a virtual platform that anyone anonymously can access any time for counselling and answers to queries on daily life issues including health, psychosocial and legal matters. Once the question is asked it is redirected to the profile of relevant experts and the answer appears within three hours maximum. Statistics show that since the app’s launch in February 2015 around 150 thousand queries were received and answered. Currently, over 10,000 users access it daily.
Tarana Halim, state minister for posts and telecommunications, was present at the ceremony as the chief guest. Asif Saleh, senior director, strategy, communications and empowerment, BRAC, moderated the event while Dr Muhammad Musa, executive director, BRAC, briefed on the mission and objective of the partnership. Ivy H Russell, founder of Maya, spoke on the activities of Maya Apa. Dr Muhammad Musa and Ivy H Russell signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.
‘Today’s event is a stark example of how ICT in Development is the next frontier of sustainability. BRAC and Maya Apa partnership will help both organisations reach out to the millions in Bangladesh to provide wellbeing and healthcare at their fingertips’, said chief guest Tarana Halim. ‘I am very happy to be a part of this ceremony, especially seeing a women-led technology start-up like Maya Apa, pushing barriers to providing affordable healthcare and wellbeing, makes me proud. I would like to wish both BRAC and Maya Apa all the best for the future and hope that the telecom service providers come forward to help with services like Maya Apa’, she further said, adding, BTRC would always stand by such social initiatives.
The organisers said, they aim at connecting the people of Bangladesh to the current digital revolution of the world. Anyone with just a mobile number can access Maya Apa. They can email their queries also. As a result, the users can easily keep themselves anonymous. Till now 60 per cent of the users are women, while the rest 40 are men. The service is available through any Android-based smart phone, web or SMS. The initiative will enable BRAC-Maya group to reach information and counselling services to people both in the rural and urban areas. The service can be accessed through download of this link https://goo.gl/LTW2OA
Having briefed the context of this partnership agreement, BRAC executive director Dr Muhammad Musa said, ‘Our objective is to provide better quality services to more people. By integrating technology into our programmes we want to expedite the delivery of BRAC’s services to the marginalised people.’
Maya founder Ivy H Russel said, ‘The Maya Apa team and I could not be more thrilled to receive this kind of commitment from BRAC. Aside from the investment itself, BRAC brings unparalleled expertise and reach in taking services to “last mile” users. Our team will now have the resources in place to drive greater awareness for Maya Apa as well as invest more heavily in improving the service by developing our capabilities in machine learning, natural language processing, and mobile user experience.’
Relevantly, a service titled ‘Maya Apa Plus’ has already been launched under a partnership with mobile operator Robi. Users will have their queries answered in ten minutes through this service.
