Mzanga Ndiwe
Privacy Policy
How this app handles what you tell it. Last updated 7 September 2026.
Mzanga Ndiwe connects people in Malawi with counsellors and other professionals. Using it means telling us things you would not tell most apps — how you have been feeling, what you are struggling with, what you said to your counsellor. This page explains what happens to all of it.
The app is made by Mikacore, an independent software studio in Area 46, Lilongwe, Malawi. Where this policy says “we”, that is who it means.
If you are in crisis right now
Mzanga Ndiwe is not an emergency service and nobody monitors it around the clock. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services or go to your nearest hospital. Do not wait for a reply in the app.
The short version
- We collect what the app needs to work, and nothing for advertising.
- We do not sell your information, ever. There is no advertising network, no analytics SDK and no tracking in this app.
- Voice calls are never recorded.
- Your counsellor sees what you book, what you send them, and any wellbeing check-ins you complete for your session with them. They do not see your mood diary.
- The app looks at your mood entries to notice when things seem to be getting harder, and may raise a flag with your counsellor. This is explained in full below.
- You can ask us to delete your account and its data.
What we collect, and why
| What | Why we hold it |
|---|---|
| Email address and password, or your Google account | To create and secure your account. Sign-in is handled by Firebase Authentication; we never see your Google password, and an email password is stored only as a cryptographic hash we cannot reverse. |
| Name, title, gender, date of birth, location, preferred language | So counsellors know who they are meeting, and so the app can show itself in Chichewa or English. |
| Profile photo | Shown to people you book with. Optional — the app draws your initials if you skip it. |
| Your intake answers: what you are dealing with, the counsellor gender you would prefer, when you would rather meet, and anything else you write | To help match you with an appropriate counsellor. |
| Bookings — date, time, session type, price, status | To run and record your sessions. |
| Payment records | To confirm a session is paid for. Card and mobile money details are handled by the payment provider and never reach us or the app. |
| Chat messages | So a conversation is still there when you come back to it. Stored with your booking. |
| Mood entries — a daily score, activity tags, your notes | To draw your own patterns back to you over time, and for the wellbeing checks described below. |
| Wellbeing check-ins before and after a session | So you and your counsellor can see whether a session helped. |
| Reviews, ratings and testimonies you choose to post | To help other people choose. A testimony can be posted anonymously — see below for what that means exactly. |
| A notification token for your device | To tell you about a booking, a message or a session starting. |
| For counsellors: qualifications, experience, pricing, availability and a copy of your certificate | To verify you are who you say you are before you can accept clients. |
Health information
Much of the above — your mood, your check-in answers, what you write to a counsellor — is information about your health. We treat it as the most sensitive thing in the app. It is used to provide the service to you and for nothing else. It is not used to build a profile of you, it is not shared with anyone outside the people named on this page, and it is never sold.
The app watches for patterns, and may tell your counsellor
This is the part people are most often surprised by, so it is stated plainly. Mzanga Ndiwe looks at your recent mood entries and check-in answers and works out a rough risk level. If the pattern suggests you may be struggling — a run of very low days, or an answer indicating hopelessness — the app raises a flag that appears on the dashboard of the counsellor you are working with, so they can reach out.
This is done automatically by the app. No human reads your mood diary to make that decision, and your counsellor does not see the diary itself — they see that a flag was raised and the general reason for it. It is a prompt for a person to check in on you. It is not a diagnosis, and it is not monitored by anyone outside the app.
If you would rather this did not happen, you can stop making mood entries, or contact us to close your account. There is currently no separate switch for it; if that matters to you, tell us and we will take it seriously.
Who can see what
Your counsellor
The counsellor you book with sees your name and profile, your booking, the messages you exchange with them, any check-ins you complete for that session, and any risk flag raised with them. They do not see your mood diary, your notes, your intake answers, or anything to do with a different counsellor.
Other people using the app
Other users see only what you put in public: your name and photo where relevant, a review you write, and a testimony you post. If you post a testimony anonymously, your name is not shown to anyone — but your account is still recorded as the author in our database, so that you can manage or remove your own post. Anonymous means hidden from other users, not untraceable to us.
Us
A small number of Mikacore administrators can access accounts in order to verify counsellors, investigate a problem, or respond to a report. We do not read chats or mood diaries out of curiosity, and we do not do it routinely.
Companies that run parts of the service
- Google Firebase — accounts, database, file storage, notifications.
- Agora — carries the audio of a voice session between the two of you. Calls are not recorded, by us or by them.
- PayChangu — processes payments. They receive what they need to take the payment; we receive confirmation that it happened.
If the law requires it
We may disclose information where we are legally obliged to, or where there is a serious and immediate risk to someone’s life. We will not do this casually, and where we are permitted to tell you, we will.
Where your information is kept
Your data is stored on Google Firebase infrastructure, in Google’s Johannesburg region — the closest region to Malawi. Some supporting services, such as scheduled reminders, run from Google’s European region. Google is a global company, so your information may be processed outside Malawi in the course of running these services.
How long we keep it
We keep your account and its contents for as long as your account exists, because the point of a mood history or a past conversation is that it is still there later. When you ask us to delete your account we remove your profile, mood entries, check-ins, messages and flags. We may keep booking and payment records where we are required to for accounting or legal reasons.
Your choices
- See and correct your details — edit your profile in the app at any time.
- Delete a mood entry — from the mood calendar.
- Remove a testimony you posted.
- Turn off notifications — in your phone’s settings for the app.
- Get a copy of your data, or have it deleted — email info@chimzearts.com and we will act on it. We aim to respond within 30 days.
Age
You must be at least 13 to use Mzanga Ndiwe. If you are under 18, please use it with the knowledge of a parent or guardian. If we learn that an account belongs to a child under 13, we will delete it.
Keeping it safe
Access is controlled by security rules enforced on the server, not just in the app: your mood diary can only be read by you, a counsellor can only read a check-in for a booking they are named on, and a counsellor’s certificate can only be read by that counsellor and an administrator. Traffic is encrypted in transit. No system is perfect, and we will not pretend otherwise — but if there is ever a breach affecting you, we will tell you.
What this app does not do
- No advertising, and no advertising identifiers.
- No analytics or crash-reporting SDK that profiles you.
- No selling or renting of personal information to anyone.
- No recording of voice sessions.
- No reading of your mood diary by your counsellor.
Changes to this policy
If we change how the app handles your information, we will update this page and change the date at the top. If the change is significant, we will tell you in the app.
Contact
Questions, requests or complaints: info@chimzearts.com, or Mikacore, Area 46, Lilongwe, Malawi.