The Silence That Inspired Me to Build Ms Flow

There are moments that change the direction of your life without announcing themselves.

For me, that moment came during one of our menstrual health outreach programmes with teenage girls in Nigeria.

I had spent weeks preparing educational materials. My team and I spoke about menstrual hygiene, answered questions, and encouraged the girls to speak openly about their health. When the session ended, I expected to see hands raised and conversations continue.

Instead, there was silence.

As the other girls began leaving, a few quietly waited behind. One by one, they approached me with questions they had been too embarrassed to ask in front of everyone else.

"Is it normal if my period doesn't come every month?"

"Can I tell my mother about this?"

"Will people laugh at me if they find out?"

Their voices were barely above a whisper.

That day, I realised something important. The greatest barrier wasn't simply a lack of menstrual health information. It was the absence of a safe, private space where girls could ask deeply personal questions without fear of judgement or shame.

That realisation stayed with me long after the programme ended.

As the founder of Motherhood NG Initiative, I had spent years supporting women and girls through community programmes. We had distributed menstrual hygiene products, organised awareness campaigns, and educated thousands of girls. Yet I couldn't stop thinking about those quiet conversations after the event.

How many other girls were carrying unanswered questions?

How many were relying on myths, misinformation, or silence simply because they didn't know who to ask?

I knew we needed a different solution.

Around the same time, I had begun exploring how Artificial Intelligence could be used to solve everyday problems. Like many people, I had seen conversations about AI focus on business, productivity, and technology. But I kept asking myself a different question:

What if AI could help a teenage girl feel less alone?

The answer led me to build Ms Flow, an AI-powered WhatsApp assistant designed to provide girls and young women with reliable menstrual health information in a private, accessible, and judgement-free way.

WhatsApp was already familiar to many of the young people we served. They didn't need to download another application or learn new technology. They simply needed a safe place to ask the questions they had been holding inside.

Building Ms Flow was both exciting and challenging. I was not backed by a large technology company or a team of software engineers. I was driven by a simple belief that technology should solve real human problems, especially for women and girls whose voices are too often overlooked.

Since its launch, more than 1,000 people have used Ms Flo to access menstrual health information. The solution has also been recognised beyond our community, including an invitation to demonstrate Ms Flo at an AI conference in Lagos. These milestones are encouraging, but they are not what matters most to me.

What matters most is knowing that somewhere, a young girl who once would have remained silent now has a place where she can ask, learn, and receive trustworthy information without fear or embarrassment.

Building Ms Flow has also transformed me.

It reminded me that innovation does not always begin with advanced technology. Sometimes, it begins by paying attention to the quiet voices that others overlook.

As women, we bring unique perspectives to the development of technology because we understand challenges that are often invisible to those who have never experienced them. When women help shape AI, we create solutions that are not only intelligent but compassionate, inclusive, and deeply human.

Today, my work continues at the intersection of women's empowerment and responsible AI. Whether supporting girls through menstrual health education or building digital tools that expand access to information, I remain convinced of one truth:

The future of AI should not simply be about what technology can do.

It should be about whose lives it can change.

Sometimes, all it takes is listening to the silence.