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BEFORE POETICA · AURAT RAAJ · PAKISTAN · 2017–2022

Raaji.

Pakistan's first AI health platform. A cartoon woman who answered the questions no mother, teacher or doctor would.

Raaji is a chatbot — and a comic character, a radio voice, a poster on a school wall. She taught periods, reproductive health, consent and harassment — in English, Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi and Pashto — to women and girls in rural Sindh, years before anyone had heard of ChatGPT. I built her with Aurat Raaj, the org I founded after the killing of Qandeel Baloch. She was not an app. She was a workaround for silence.

ASK RAAJI — TRY THE BOT →ENGLISH · اردو · FRANÇAIS · العربية
The Raaji app opening: Raaji's portrait, then a chat in Urdu
THE APP · URDU · GOOGLE PLAY
29% → 84%
girls who said a period is nothing to be ashamed of — before and after one session. 120 girls, four karachi schools, 2019. the shame number moved in an afternoon.
1 language → 8
urdu became sindhi, punjabi, pashto, balochi, english, french, arabic. the content moved to meet her, not the other way.
0 villages → 22
no internet, no chatbot reach — until we stopped needing internet at all.
rag → reusable pad
the thing girls actually asked for, made by the women who’d never made one before.
THE CASE IN ONE SCREEN

What I did, and what it showed.

THE PROBLEM
Girls across Pakistan reached their first period knowing almost nothing about it, and with nobody they could safely ask.
WHAT I OWNED
Founder of Aurat Raaj. Product lead, conversation designer and safeguarding lead. I wrote every answer the chatbot gave. Engineers built the code — who built her.
THREE DECISIONS
Buttons and pre-approved answers, not free generation — a health bot that improvises is a liability. Anonymous by design — no sign-in, so girls asked what they could not ask at home. Follow the gaps — no bandwidth meant audio listening parties; education without affordable products meant reusable pads; questions beyond the bot meant a referral to a person.
WHAT SHIPPED
An animated series, the chatbot in Urdu and English (later Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto and Balochi), listening parties, Raaji Pads and a school curriculum.
THE EVIDENCE
In one session in four Karachi schools, girls agreeing that a period is nothing to be ashamed of went from 29% to 84%. That is an immediate survey response, not proof of lasting behaviour change.
AFTER
Raaji ran 2017–2022. When I moved to the U.S. I handed it to the partners; it closed when the funding did. The rebuilt chatbot is playable here.
WATCH HER FIRST · THE ANIMATED SERIES
▶ WATCH ON YOUTUBE
THE FILE · WHAT I OWNED, WHAT THE MACHINE DID, WHAT SHIPPED
PROBLEMgirls in pakistan couldn’t ask anyone about their own bodies.
MY ROLEfounder — product, narrative, and the safeguarding rules for what the bot could never answer.
THE WORKurdu/sindhi chatbot, classroom pilots, offline audio parties, a reusable-pad programme.
AI’S PARTdialogflow intents with human-in-the-loop routing — 2018, before the hype.
STATUSran 2017–2022. one pilot, 120 girls: “a period is nothing to be ashamed of” went 29% → 84%.
WHAT RAAJI WAS · EIGHT PARTS
01
The Animated Series

a cartoon that won a tve Global Sustainability award at BAFTA, London, and was screened with UNESCO across rural Sindh. where it all started.
02
The Chatbot

pakistan’s first ai health chatbot. anonymous, eight languages, a human behind it.
03
Digital Literacy

hundreds of rural women trained as digital champions — laptops, phones and a year of data, donated outright.
04
Listening Parties

offline audio lessons, played in village circles by the champions themselves.
05
Raaji Pads

reusable cloth pads designed and sewn by rural artisans. launched on do day 2021.
06
Curriculum with UNFPA

ten srhr lessons in sindhi, reviewed by unfpa, built with the school of leadership.
07
Rumie & Uridu

dari and pashto lessons with rumie; audio and a mental-health survey across 22 villages with uridu.
08
Advocacy

the menarche-and-marriage finding, podcasts, webinars, the period poverty dashboard.
2017 – 2022 · SIX YEARS, THEN A HANDOFF

I gave it away before I had to.

when i moved to the u.s., i handed raaji to the partners instead of running it at half strength from another continent. it held — the ngos run their own versions today, and the pad design, released without copyright, turned up in flood relief in 2022. read the handoff →

01
The Story →

nine chapters, the pilot data, why each thing was started, the photos from every room.
02
The People →

the team, the mentors, the ones who opened doors, and the human handover behind the bot.
00
Where It Began →

qandeel baloch. the woman whose murder started all of it.
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SABA KHALID · POETICA STUDIO
saba@poetica.studio