There are no health services providers in Shauri Yako or Manjengo's slums. It is common for impoverished girls to turn to commercial sex work. Sexual assault (rarely reported) is a significant problem. Underage pregnancy rates are skyrocketing amongst girls as young as 13. This project will provide reproductive health and family planning support, access to birth control and peer support. It will address the vulnerability of young women and empower them through information.
In the slums we serve, about 65% of the population is between 15 and 30 and 90% is impoverished. The HIV/AIDS rate is increasing amongst those 14-20. Teenage pregnancy and prostitution is commonplace, although rates are unknown, and sexual abuse and human trafficking are real risks. Our community wants to address these perpetual hazards of poverty. We need to meet the right of youth to reproductive health services, so they may feel safer, empowered by information and make informed decisions
SYSC will provide free family planning services, reproductive health information and condoms to youth living in the Shauri Yako and Manjengo slums. The funds raised through this project will allow us to partner with a local family health provider at a subsidized rate, and make services available for the community free of charge. We will retain a health educator who, over six months, will plan and deliver information and outreach sessions for the community at SYSC's centre.
This project will improve the effectiveness of SYSC's other youth support programs, such as vocational skills training. Healthier youth with greater command over their bodies and decisions will be better able to become self-reliant, contributing members of the community. Over time, rates of prostitution, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted disease will fall. Education and peer to peer mentoring will reduce rates of gender based violence and discrimination.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).