BREAKING BARRIERS ON SRHR AMONG YOUNG GIRLS

Like in many parts of the world, especially rural and semi rural areas, very young adolescents especially girls age 10-14 face unique challenges which require targeted solutions. With the onset of puberty, sexual maturation and societal expectations about gender roles as they enter adolescence, many lack the knowledge and skills to deal with these rapid biological challenges and societal expectation on gender role. On the other hand, social norms that prohibits discussion of Sexual and Reproductive Health and related topics within the rural area has further isolated them from the information and support they need resulting in many entering adolescences with very limited information about their changing bodies, their potential fertility, or the challenges and advantages of adopting protective behaviors as they approach adulthood.

On the contrary, given the nascency of this field in the rural and hard to reach areas, parents, teachers and concerned others are uninformed thus making it impossible to discuss healthy transition and healthcare needs that concerns young girls situation. This is resulting in younger adolescents’ experience rapid transitions to unfamiliar experiences and face life-challenging situations such as leaving school, having unsafe-sex, becoming parents/unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion and even acquiring HIV.

On the other hand, they have frequently experience stigmatization and discrimination from healthcare providers especially government facilities, including longer waiting times, reluctance or being denied services, hostility and violations of privacy, resulting in them avoiding and delaying seeking services.

Above is resulting from poor awareness among service providers specifically at our government healthcare facilities causing very young adolescents reluctant in seeking Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare services for fear of being judged by such service providing institutions. For the few who gather the courage to seek services, they are subjected to inappropriate services and referrals that fail to meet their needs.

On the other hand these have presented serious consequences because it affects their odds of seeking and accessing services at service provision institutions. Many may also shy away and chose to remain silent about their ordeals and sometimes assume that for them lack of SRH information is normal.

Saddened by the challenges that these young girls face in our society especially low self esteem, we are seeking support to prioritize solutions which cultivate better ways of reaching adolescents wherever they are; with SRH information and services, and products that are delivered in a way that is both relatable and relevant to their lives while setting the stage for future SRHR and gendered attitudes and behaviors; and simultaneously forging healthy habits which improve long-term physiological, psychosocial, and economic well-being to lay the foundation for positive sexual and reproductive health behaviors and  ensuring programs meet the ever-changing needs of very young adolescent girls helping them understand and avoid risky health behaviors and seek care proactively.

If this is not done, we will see an upsurge of unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, high number of school drop out among girls, high number of teenage mothers, maternal deaths, and sexually transmitted infections among VYAs within rural set up.

While existing initiatives have yielded some results; a lot more needs to be done to create an understanding and to empower community on SRH issues. To this effect, we are seek support to implement below initiatives to address above disparities to make Hard to reach areas of Kisumu and it environ a better place as described below under key strategic pillars:

1. Organize and conduct a two days training with 40 very young adolescents on SRH services that concern their situation to educate and link them to SRHR information and services and to improve their long–term knowledge and behaviors to make informed choices around their health and wellbeing

2. Organize 4 forums with at least 50 VYAs to bring them together to discuss and articulate life challenging issues spanning from puberty knowledge, menstruation care, safe sexual practices, relationship dynamics, intimate partner violence and to document/share and learn. This will allow VYAs the capacity to make informed choices about their health and wellbeing both, within and outside of school settings Highlighting SRH challenges facing VYAs and to delineate out possible solutions

3. Organize two forums for guardians, parents’ and other key stakeholders and community leaders on rapid biological challenges that concerns VYAs. This will enable them understand and embrace the SRHR needs of VYAs and to break the societal norms and taboos that impede discussion in relation to SRH for VYAs and to discuss barriers that limit VYA from realizing optimal SRH service

4. Sensitize caregivers specifically healthcare workers at public government facilities on issues of vulnerability, self esteem, stigma, discrimination and unconscious bias against VYAs to help address the use of stigmatizing language and modelling non-discriminating behavior with the aim to deliver youth-centric, high quality, non-discriminatory information, and services

5. Facilitate a one-day strategic meeting with key allies/movements to brainstorm and work to meaningfully shift policies that restrict adolescents’ access to relevant information and services no SRH thus enabling them to access relevant and accurate information and services

6. Organize and host prosocial activity that will bring together VYAs to get to know each other, their interests, their strengths and weaknesses and to identify and understand the nature and challenges that hinder VYAs from realizing their sexual and reproductive health rights within hard to reach areas of Kisumu where Kisumu Shinners operate. Under this activity groups with similar personalities will be grouped together and have them chat about how they tackle different challenges and needs that concerns their situation and sharing it out with other teams/groups.

7. Create and maintain a dedicated online chat space spanning from what’s up groups, networking channels/groups and networking channels for VYAs to ask questions, create discussion, share information and share useful contents for others to used for advice and support, learn new information, meet like-minded individuals and to stay on up-to date with the latest trend in SRH that concern their needs

As an informed population with low self esteem due to stigmatization from the community, social marginalization due to poor exposure, family neglect due to poverty and ignorance, these young girls are not only likely to experience social and economic marginalization, but are also less likely to receive help when they need it from police resulting from sexual violence, health care workers and others tasked with providing services at service providing institutions. On the contrary, further abuse by service providers leads many to feel seeking services is an exercise in futility, which further exacerbates low self esteem and stigmatization.

These have presented serious consequences because it affects their odds of seeking and accessing services at service provision institutions especially gender base violence, sexual violence and sexual and reproductive health information. Many may also shy away and chose to remain silent about their ordeals and sometimes assume that for them lack of SRH information is normal.

Kisumu Shinners CBO through this project BREAKING BARRIERS ON SRHR AMONG YOUNG GIRLS Project, seek to address these socio cultural and economic marginalization to sustain respect for bodily integrity and autonomy for young girls and are respected and treated with dignity thus cultivating better ways of reaching adolescents wherever they are; with SRH information, services, and products that are delivered in a way that is both relatable and relevant to their lives; while setting the stage for future SRHR and gendered attitudes and behaviors and simultaneously forging healthy habits which improve long-term physiological, psychosocial, and economic well-being to lay the foundation for positive sexual and reproductive health behaviors and  ensuring programs meet the ever-changing needs of VYAs helping them understand and avoid risky health behaviors and seek care proactively. This calls for meaningful representation, dialogue and advocacy that is the core of Kisumu Shinners Program and align to organization Vision of “A HEALTHY JUST SOCIETY FREE FROM STIGMA AND DISCRIMINATION”

If this is not done, we will see an upsurge of unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, maternal deaths, and sexually transmitted infections among VYAs within the informal settlements of Kisumu County and its environment

Through this project BREAKING BARRIERS ON SRHR AMONG YOUNG GIRLS, we target Adolescent girls and boys between the age of 10 and 15 within the grass root rural within Western Kenya at large with targeted approaches which will increase access to sexual and reproductive health information and services for very young adolescents;

The leadership and management of the affairs of Kisumu Shinners CBO are directed by a team of five staff headed by a Executive Director; They are in charge of the operation of the organization and progress of projects implementation. The team meet on regular basis to consult on projects conceptualization to bring in project implementation. Key to note is that the team is a composition of youth and are focal in identifying their peers need and equally reaching them with behavior change communication.

Besides the secretariat, we have peer educators with whom we consult widely to bring to reality the contextualization of our activities and program formulation. They are key in identifying gaps, common problems they face and best approach for delivering services towards better inclusion of programs that benefit the the youth within our community and adolescent girls

More than 5000

1. Peer to Peer Approach: We will always use peer to peer approach to reach the target populations to support awareness action to the society about SRH issues and concerns organizing dialogue forums and collaboration meeting to share their problems and to discuss and articulate their needs and concerns that promote harm reduction, healing and justice.

2. Peer Support Groups: Peer directed groups provide emotional support and social networks. On the other hand, they are focal in identifying their peers for service delivery and equally reaching the same peers with behavior change communication

3. SASA approach: Start, Awareness, Support Action: This will involve community conversation on youth and adolescents SRH needs and creating space for youth and adolescent to share their problems and to discuss and articulate their needs and concerns. 

4. Communication Materials: will contain information pack to help engage youth and adolescent spontaneously during their day-to-day journey of biological change.

Through this project we aim to create below impact

1. Increased access to SRH services by VYAs,

2. Holistic SRH Service Provision and Referral that meet the specific needs of VYAs with focus on informed consent, wellbeing, and confidentiality by service providers. Additionally, associated stigma and discrimination are eliminated from service provision. (No stigmatizing and discriminatory language.) through service provider’s sensitization thus create an enabling environment for VYAs communities to access appropriate stigma-free SRH services from the government health systems.

3. Improved structural challenges to mitigate VYAs barriers to access SRH services that concerns their situation and create favorable working environment and contributions to policy change.

4. Improved VYAs Sexual and Reproductive Health knowledge and behaviors and empowering them to make informed choices around their health and wellbeing both, within and outside of school settings Highlighting SRH challenges facing VYAs and to delineate possible solutions

5. Guardians, parents’ teachers and other authorities, coaches and community leaders are able to understand and embrace the SRHR needs of VYAs and to break the societal norms and taboos that impede discussion in relation to SRH for VYAs and to discuss barriers that limit VYA from realizing optimal SRH service with the aim to deliver youth-centric, high quality, non-discriminatory information, and services

6. Meaningfully shift in policies that restrict adolescents’ access to relevant information and services on SRH thus addressing restrictive norms and policies which limit adolescents from realizing optimal SRH thus create a conducive environment for adolescents to access relevant and accurate information and services

7. Peer groups formed for advice and support and to bring individual personality and have them chat about how they tackle different challenges and needs that concerns their situation and sharing it out with other teams/groups, learn new information, meet like-minded individuals and to stay on up-to date with the latest trend in SRH that concern their needs

1. Key stakeholders and community leaders are able to understand and embrace the SRHR needs of youth and adolescents and to break the societal norms and taboos that impede discussion in relation to SRH with the aim to deliver youth-centric, high quality, non-discriminatory information, and services

2. Youth and adolescents empowered on issues of freedom of expression and SRHR to model and remodel their behavior by enhancing their capacity to make informed choices to improve health outcome and mitigating the impact to increase demand for appropriate health information

3. Increased numbers of youth and adolescent accessing affordable, sustainable and comprehensive quality stigma free health care services that respect their diverse needs and identity and can exercise their right to bodily integrity at the government health facilities tailored to their needs 

4. Improved structural challenges to mitigate barriers to access SRH services to create favorable environment for contributions to meaningfully shift in policies that restrict adolescents’ access to relevant information and services thus addressing restrictive norms and policies which limit adolescents from realizing optimal SRH thus create a conducive environment for adolescents to access relevant and accurate information and services

5 Staff working as volunteers and paid stipend and 5 Peer Educators working as community mobilisers and champions

Kisumu Shinners is a non-profit, non-political registered youth led organization in Western Kenya formed for health, Legal and human rights intervention and registered in 2012 as a way to nurture, empower and transform youths within our society into self-reliant, independent and key players in their community, Kisumu Shinners have over 10 years experience  to create a positive social change, Kisumu Shinners is inspired and seek to make a difference to the youth in small measurable ways that allow to address crucial gap in education, health and economic empowerment for self-reliance.

1. Peer to Peer Approach: We will always use peer to peer approach to reach the target populations to support awareness action to the society about SRH issues and concerns organizing dialogue forums and collaboration meeting to share their problems and to discuss and articulate their needs and concerns that promote harm reduction, healing and justice.

2. Peer Support Groups: Peer directed groups provide emotional support and social networks. On the other hand, they are focal in identifying their peers for service delivery and equally reaching the same peers with behavior change communication

3. SASA approach: Start, Awareness, Support Action: This will involve community conversation on youth and adolescents SRH needs and creating space for youth and adolescent to share their problems and to discuss and articulate their needs and concerns.

4. Communication Materials: will contain information pack to help engage youth and adolescent spontaneously during their day-to-day journey of biological change.

Generally, Kisumu Shinners interventions approach is Peer to peer which has been a tool of transformation among members and beneficiaries. We have been able to change community perception which has led to increased self-esteem issues among our members. This is through organizing support sharing forum/sessions which are a form of giving support to its members. These sessions have proved to be very positive and many members have been transformed and especially those who were in the verge of giving up in life.

As an organization  the model we have is that we are focusing on specific target population. This has enable us define the target beneficiaries, and best way for the service delivery and like other past projects implemented we will focus on youth and adolescent and young adults.

While Loving Sisters currently has one donor-UHAI, the organization is working to continue creating a lot of networks, partnership and collaboration to enable it grow organization donor database and request for funding. In the meantime, we have also sent concept notes and proposals.

We also we focus on how our projects are deeply rooted in the community we serve focus on how the beneficiaries will continue enjoying the benefit of the different projects with available funding to create more impact thus gain the support of the general public to enable continuity into foreseeable future. By this, we include this particular community; from the get-go in planning and implementation by consulting with all stakeholders whenever possible to make sure that they feel ownership of the project and that their preferences are implemented