In the remote Newala District of Tanzania, teenage girls face a real health issue; unwanted sexual advances. Young girls are often approached as they walk to a neighbour’s house, the water well or the store, and many feel forced to give in. Those who don’t put their wellbeing at risk to rape, and a lot of adolescent girls end up missing school because, as they put it, some teachers “just want to have sex with you.”
However, this isn’t just a matter of the girls’ emotional wellness, but their sexual health also. In these Tanzanian communities, such sexual violence puts 12- to 17-year-old girls at a greater risk of being infected by HIV. In fact, across the world, girls and young women are far more likely to be HIV-positive than their male counterparts. Of those between the ages of 15 and 24 living with HIV – which is disproportionate to other age groups anyway – females make up more than 60% of the group. These are shocking statistics which, at their core, reveal the reality that girls throughout the world are living with every day. Gender inequalities are the norm in many countries, and these shape the lives of young girls and threaten their mental and physical wellness.
It was with this in mind that International Centre for Research on Women researchers embarked on a new project, allowing them to understand and tackle the numerous ways in which girls of the Newala District are at risk of HIV. The effort, known in English as “Yes Youth Can”, was funded by ViiV Healthcare’s Positive Action programme and undertaken in partnership with Taasisi ya Maendeleo Shirikishi Arusha (Tamasha). The researchers learned that the girls themselves needed to be active contributors to the work, not as passive recipients of the project outcomes but being placed at the centre of both research and programming agendas.
Instead of giving a pre-packaged HIV prevention effort to voiceless beneficiaries, the project enables girls to define and address their own needs. Jennifer McCleary-Sills, a senior social and behavioural scientist at the International Centre for Research on Women, explains, ‘We accomplished this through an inclusive process that began with our local partner, Tamasha, informing community leaders about our initiative, who in turn nominated several potential candidates to serve as “youth researchers” for the project. Tamasha then interviewed them to assess literacy levels and their willingness to discuss sensitive issues.’
This process resulted in the selection of nine 18- to 24-year-old women, who led formative research in four rural communities. Overall, 82 girls aged 12 to 17 participated in a series of Participatory Learning and Action sessions, which included exercises such as getting the girls to draw a map of where they feel unsafe in their community, to explain the obstacles they face in achieving their dreams, and to detail their perceived risks to HIV. McCleary-Sills adds, ‘Meanwhile, our team interviewed adults – parents, community leaders, service providers – to learn whether and how they thought about girls’ vulnerabilities and how the community could better safeguard girls’ health and wellbeing.’
So where is the Newala District now in terms of sexual wellness? The integrative approach of the Yes Youth Can project shaped the structure and priorities of the subsequent intervention project, as well as giving content and case studies for a life skills education curriculum, and mentors for peer facilitators who were later trained to implement the project. Moreover, the involvement of Newala women encouraged open, non-judgmental dialogue, which is a rarity in such communities. McCleary-Sills notes that change is a gradual process, but the process has been started, and will spill out into surrounding communities.