Safe Spaces PH launches a new way to access peer-led sexual health information. Meet Enzo, your friendly sexual health chatbot. Prepared with quips, gifs, and tips, Enzo has got you covered in preventing HIV transmission from testing to treatment! Try him out on Facebook Messenger at m.me/safespacesph.
We wanted to make Safe Spaces PH a gateway for sexual health information, and since we are often on our social media, we went for a chatbot for people to easier navigate and access the information that they need, instead of searching for specific posts.
Paul Junio, Safe Spaces PH Chatbot Developer
Peer-level information sharing is still an integral part of how people access information. We sometimes find ourselves looking towards them in verifying what we’ve learned from our internet search. This may be through our friends, community leaders, or even your trusted community based organizations. While the current pandemic protocols limit the reach of traditional peer educators, Enzo was made to bridge the gap.
Developing Enzo
“Matching the technical sides of developing the chatbot, the medical facts, and the relatable tone of messaging was definitely a challenge,” said Junio.
When Enzo was conceptualized, one of the top priorities was giving him a personality. Unlike other automated messaging systems, the Safe Spaces PH team wanted to make the user experience as close to how you’d talk to a friend as possible. A conversational tone mixed in with fun gifs, videos, and credible information.
Enzo also customizes its responses based on your given demographics and need. With a few simple questions, Enzo can recommend courses of action that are best for you. So whether you’re a man having sex with men who is living with HIV, a transgender woman, or cisgender heterosexual, Enzo knows what is just right for you, and gives you a directory of where to access these services.
Moving Forward
Currently, Enzo is only available on Facebook Messenger under the Safe Spaces PH page, however if all goes well with his pilot run, we may be seeing him on other platforms as well. Translations into Tagalog and Bisaya are also in development, and the team is more than willing to make Enzo accessible in other Philippine languages. To collaborate, you can send a private message on the Safe Spaces PH Facebook page, or send an email to [email protected].
Text by Carlos Diego A. Rozul
