Kebeza Cancer Check
A WhatsApp-based cancer symptom guidance tool designed to help people understand warning signs, identify when medical assessment may be needed, and navigate toward appropriate government or private care.
The problem
Many people notice symptoms such as breast lumps, abnormal bleeding, persistent swallowing problems, bowel changes, chest symptoms, urinary problems, swellings, or changing skin lesions but delay seeking care.
The delay is often not because people do not care. It is because they are unsure whether the symptom is serious, where to go, which clinic is appropriate, and whether the cost will be manageable.
What Kebeza built
Kebeza Cancer Check provides a simple WhatsApp menu covering eight cancer-related symptom pathways. Users reply with numbers only. The tool separates responses into high-urgency and low-urgency pathways, then gives practical next-step guidance.
How the WhatsApp guidance works
The tool welcomes the user and asks them to select the symptom area that best describes their concern.
Each pathway uses short symptom prompts and number-only replies to reduce confusion.
Responses are grouped into high-urgency or low-urgency categories using predefined rules.
High-urgency responses are directed toward medical assessment, with government facility guidance in the Kampala MVP.
It does not diagnose cancer. It helps identify symptoms that may require medical review.
Why it matters
Cancer outcomes depend heavily on how quickly patients move from noticing symptoms to being assessed, investigated, diagnosed, and treated.
Equity focus
A WhatsApp-first model can reach people using a familiar channel, without requiring a new app download or complex medical language.
Scale potential
The same model can expand beyond Kampala with regional referral directories, additional languages, and stronger public-private diagnostic pathways.
Current status
- English WhatsApp text-only MVP built.
- Eight cancer-related symptom pathways defined.
- Two-level urgency model: high urgency and low urgency.
- Kampala government referral outputs prepared for the MVP.
- Luganda is planned as the next language.
Partner opportunity
Kebeza is seeking partners to support multilingual rollout, facility verification, referral directory expansion, monitoring, evaluation, public awareness, and integration with cancer diagnostic services.
Partner with Kebeza Cancer Check
Support a WhatsApp-first cancer guidance and referral navigation model built for African health systems, local languages, and practical patient pathways.