We’re proud to celebrate Dawa Health, a BongoHive alumni startup, for being crowned the Winner of the DS4Health Africa Ideathon 2025, sponsored by Google. 🎉

The competition, hosted during the Deep Learning Indaba 2025, brought together innovators from across the continent to design data-driven health solutions for Africa. From over 30 submissions, Dawa Health was among six finalists selected to present at the live pitch session — and ultimately emerged as champions.

Their winning solution leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) to strengthen cervical cancer screening and management in rural and low-resource clinics. The system combines:

• A Dual-AI Expert System: Using computer vision powered by Google’s MedSigLIP, achieving 96.7% test accuracy in detecting and staging pre-cancer lesions, and offering WHO-guided management advice to health workers.

• Localized Patient Support: An NLP/Gemini-based feature that supports more than seven Zambian local languages, providing culturally relevant health education to patients and community health workers.

• Offline-First Functionality: Designed for low-connectivity environments, ensuring consistent performance even in remote areas.

Dawa Health’s “why” began with the story of a Zambian teacher diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer — a powerful reminder of the urgent need for early detection and equitable access to healthcare technologies.

The solution was evaluated by a panel of global experts, including Dr. Yun Liu and Dr. Katherine Heller (Google, U.S.), Dr. Lukman Enegi Ismaila (Johns Hopkins University), and Professor Ashery Mbilinyi (University of Victoria).

Dawa Health’s achievement is a testament to Africa’s growing potential in health innovation, driven by homegrown talent and purpose-led technology.

Congratulations to the team — Tariro Munzwa (Software Engineer), Khanyisile Tapiwa Magagula (ML Engineer), and Kudzai Mwedzi (Data Scientist) — for this outstanding milestone.

BongoHive celebrates your continued impact and dedication to building solutions that make healthcare more accessible and equitable across Africa. 🌍