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KAYA GUIDES

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STARTED: Incubation Program 2022

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Rachel Abbott

Founder

SEED GRANT: $110,000

MONEY FUNDRAISED TO DAT E (AUG 2023): $114,300

TEAM SIZE (AUG 2023): 2 core team members, 2 “guides,” one project coordinator, one tech developer, and 12 youth representatives

WEBSITE: www.kayaguides.com

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Reducing depression among youth in India through a WhatsApp guided self-help program.

CURRENT OR PREDICTED IMPACT:

  • Kaya Guides offers a guided self-help program on WhatsApp that teaches youth effective tactics to reduce depression. A meta-analysis of 21 RCTs demonstrates that guided self-help has comparable effects to face-to-face therapy in reducing depression, making it potentially highly cost-effective. Participating youth receive videos in Hindi and have a 15-minute weekly call with lay counselors, which is proven to drive retention. Kaya Guides aims to reduce depression for 500,000 youth by 2030.

COST-EFFECTIVENESS:

  • The team estimates that Kaya Guides could be 25x more cost-effective than direct cash transfers in LMICs at increasing subjective well-being.

  • At scale, the marginal cost of helping an additional person could be as low as $7.88

SIGNIFICANT UPDATES ON PROGRESS:

  • Launched program in India!!!

  • Successfully adapted the WHO’s well-studied digital guided self-help program to India’s cultural context and formatted it for WhatsApp

  • Produced 40 creative videos in Hindi teaching youth techniques to reduce depression through a story-based experience

  • Created and launched a Hindi WhatsApp chatbot to serve as the delivery agent for the program and enable scalability

  • Designed “guidance” arm of the program and recruited and trained two guides

  • Researched and analyzed dozens of guided self-help studies to select the highest-potential program

  • Recruited 12 youth representatives to promote the program at colleges

  • Hired a head psychologist with previous early-stage nonprofit experience to serve as a core team member, train and supervise lay counselors who interact with participants, and support initiatives org-wide

  • Brought on the former India country director of large international youth-focused NGO Girl Effect as an advisor

  • The Kaya Guides founder relocated to India to build out the organization

ROOM FOR MORE FUNDING IN 2023:

  • $30,000

  • Funds would enable Kaya to test and iterate their service to maximize participant retention, thereby enabling the organization’s impact. Honing a high-quality service that can be delivered for a low cost will set the stage for successful incremental scaling. Donors may contact Kaya Guides directly (rachel@kayaguides.com) to learn more about what these funds would enable them to achieve. If potential donors are interested in experiencing the program for themselves, they may also contact us to receive the WhatsApp number and message the chatbot!

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