KUZIKO Game

In sub-Saharan Africa, and in Burundi in particular, pregnancy at school is a sad reality that must never be trivialized. Young teenagers in the process of discovering their bodies need to be accompanied. They need as much information as possible to know and understand what's going on inside them, and what they're exposing themselves to by taking certain actions. The first step is to break the taboo surrounding sexuality in Burundian society, which is the main cause of unwanted pregnancies.

The cultural expectations and sexual practices of young people make them highly vulnerable and expose them to a variety of risks, particularly for girls. Indeed, the lack of information and strict social expectations concerning girls' education lead to negative experiences.

The latter are unaware of the risks associated with sexual relations, and are exposed to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unwanted pregnancies, dropping out of school following pregnancy, clandestine abortions and rejection by families. According to the Burundi Ministry of Education report for 2019-2020, pregnancies in schools are respectively: Kayanza with 136 pregnancies; Gitega with 115 pregnancies as well as Muyinga Province with 101 pregnancies.

For fear of being uncomfortable, of being stigmatized or of meeting their acquaintances and other adults at the Amis des Jeunes health centers, they prefer to refer to their friends or get information on social networks, at the risk of obtaining false information, rather than going to the appropriate centers. Young people and teenagers also seek information via the Internet. While some are fortunate enough to have access to correct information, many do not, and suffer serious consequences as a result.

When it comes to parent-child dialogue on the sexual and reproductive health of young people and adolescents, both parents and young people come up against numerous socio-cultural barriers that make children's sexuality a taboo subject within a family.

Our solution helps to reduce the factors that often make young girls vulnerable to various forms of gender-based violence, including manipulation by adults for prostitution due to families' limited resources to provide for their basic needs such as sanitary towels. clothes, underwear, pens, etc. An autonomous, educated teenager has more opportunities to control his or her own sex life by demonstrating risky behavior and delaying the onset of sexual relations. 

KUZIKO Game raises awareness and educates young people through an interactive card game containing educational information on sexual and reproductive health. It reinforces the parent-child dialogue on this subject, overcoming socio-cultural barriers linked to the topic of family sexuality.

KUZIKO means "around the fire". This name was chosen because in the past, the education of Burundian youth was provided by the parents, respectively the father and the mother. It was generally done in the evenings around the fire (KUZIKO) through proverbs, tales & legends, while waiting for the food to be ready. On the other hand, in most homes, there are no longer any opportunities to gather around the fire, as the habitat has changed.

This game is a fun and friendly way of talking about sexual and reproductive health. In the context of sexual and reproductive health for adolescents and young people, it will be used as an educational tool to transmit reliable information to prevent risky behavior.

KUZIKO GAME is a board game that can be played with 2, 3 or 4 participants, or in teams of four. It consists of 1 game board, 1 booklet containing detailed information, 2 dice, 4 counters, pearls (symbolic rewards to determine the winners) and cards of four different colors containing questions and answers about the sexual and reproductive health of young people and adolescents.

Each player chooses a starting point (4 colors: blue, orange, green and red) on the board. Players move from the starting square of their chosen color. To start moving the pawn, the player must roll the die and move the pawn according to the corresponding number on the rolled die.

The square where the pawn lands correspond to a question on sexual and reproductive health on the question cards that the player must answer. If he can't find the answer, the other participants go to the answer cards to look for the correct answer and read it out loud. The other player takes over the game, repeating the same steps. The game ends when all participants reach the finish point. If the player answers the question correctly, he or she is awarded a pearl of the same color as the question answered. But if he fails, he doesn't get the pearl. The winner is the player who answers many questions more correctly than the others, and therefore gets many pearls.

The "KUZIKO GAME" interactive card game can be used for targeted discussion sessions in associations, as well as awareness-raising or educational sessions in youth-friendly health centers, youth centers or health clubs in schools. It can also be used to support parent-child conversations on taboo subjects in sex education.

Our solution provides young people and teenagers with as much information as possible, so they know and understand what's going on inside them, and what they're exposing themselves to by doing what they're doing. Young people attending youth centers and youth-friendly health centers will have entertainment games that are also a source of information and education. These Youth Spaces will become much more attractive, and the demand for information and voluntary testing will increase, because young people will have been informed. As for schools, their health clubs have been revitalized by the arrival of the interactive card game "KUZIKO GAME".

Sexuality is a taboo subject in Burundi; nobody talks about it at home. Yet adolescence is an important period of transition, and young people have a lot of questions. It's very difficult to answer them. Access to reliable information on the subject will enable them to grow up safely and to live their sexuality to the full. The consequences on their lives are far-reaching: school drop-outs due to unwanted pregnancies and early marriages are recalled. Above all, we want young people to be able to take charge of their own health and be autonomous.

Me and my organization have a community base in the action zone and have a network of young volunteers spread across the action zones who have relevant and technical experience in animation, mobilization for better communication of change and community advocacy.

In implementing our activities, we work with young girls and boys as peer educators who act as catalysts for behavioral change in the attitudes and practices of the Burundian community.

Indeed, our values are based on inclusiveness and empowerment. Our policy is to include young peer educators as the target group for our projects, and to give them the opportunity to lead training sessions for other young people and teenagers, with the support of our Solutions team.

These peer educators are young leaders who represent others in their constituency. In developing our solutions, our technical team organizes focus groups to gather the opinions/grievances of the target youth. To better respond to the real needs of young people and adolescents in terms of sexual and reproductive health and rights, these focus groups/targeted activities are organized in collaboration with young leaders. They will be involved in all stages of our solutions, including design, implementation and participation in all stages of the mid-term and final evaluation.  

In return, the team leader is a young girl leader who, on a daily basis, works to submit the grievances/concerns of other young girls collected through various projects to the stakeholders. As we specialize in awareness-raising with schools, the implementation of this solution will be carried out by the project team in collaboration with the heads of the basic and post-basic schools in the action zone, as well as the young peer educator leaders.

Finally, our experience shows us that working with young peer educators enables the active participation of other young people and adolescents in our awareness-raising and training sessions on sexual and reproductive health and rights and guides us in knowing whether the grievances of other young people are better addressed.

-16 schools have received KUZIKO Game interactive card game kits.

- 4 organizations use KUZIKO Game interactive card games in their daily activities with young people.

KUZIKO means "around the fire". This name was chosen because, in the past, the education of Burundian youth was provided by the parents, respectively the father and the mother. It was generally done in the evenings around the fire (KUZIKO).

Through KUZIKO GAME, the APROSAP&ARFH consortium wanted to create a meeting place for parents and children, to encourage parents to take greater responsibility for their children's education, and to discuss sensitive issues of sexual and reproductive health through the interactive card game "KUZIKO GAME", containing educational information.

The KUZIKO GAME solution differs from other approaches used in Burundi for SRHR in that it is both entertaining and educational. It enables a maximum amount of reliable and comprehensive SRHR information to be conveyed in a limited time.

It also makes it possible to tackle subjects considered taboo by society in a fun and friendly way, and to facilitate active and inclusive participation without discrimination. Once we've been out in the field, the beneficiaries stay involved, clamoring for our return.

It's a board game that raises awareness of sexual and reproductive health among young people and adolescents, and reinforces parent-child dialogue on this theme by breaking down taboos linked to sexual and reproductive health issues.

Designed as a board game, with four different colored zones and question-and-answer cards, participants can ask questions on a range of sexual and reproductive health and rights issues. They will also have at their disposal a booklet in the local language "Kirundi" containing comprehensive and reliable information.

The objectives of the KUZIKO GAME solution are:

The ultimate goal of our KUZIKO GAME solution is to contribute to young people's and adolescents' access to information and education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, while promoting parent-child dialogue using KUZIKO GAME interactive card games.

Objective 1: The knowledge and skills of young people and adolescents on sexual and reproductive health and rights in Burundi are strengthened through KUZIKO GAME interactive card games.

To achieve this, the KUZIKO GAME team will involve all stakeholders, in particular school heads, communal and provincial directors and their hierarchies, as well as youth-friendly health centers, to explain the contribution of our solution to the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people and adolescents.

 Next, a training of trainers with peer educators and young volunteers on animation techniques is planned, so that they can support the solution team in awareness-raising campaigns using interactive card games. Complete KUZIKO GAME kits will be available to them during awareness-raising periods, and the team will leave two kits in each school club or youth space to help young people recharge their batteries.

Objective 2: Frameworks for exchange, learning and dialogue on sensitive topics of sexual and reproductive health and rights for young people and adolescents are created, in order to improve access to information and training on sensitive topics of sexual and reproductive health and rights.

To break down socio-cultural barriers to free choice of SRHR services and self-fulfillment, forums for exchange and dialogue on sexual and reproductive health and rights will be organized periodically with young people and parents/educators and other SRHR stakeholders. These forums for exchange and sharing of information on SRHR will strengthen empowerment and influence informed decisions about the sexual and reproductive health of young people and adolescents.  

Objective 3: The support of influential groups (mainly religious leaders) in raising awareness and educating young people and adolescents about sexual and reproductive health and rights is improved.

Religious education and the taboo culture surrounding sexuality in Burundi remain major obstacles to the transmission of and access to SRHR information, especially for young people and adolescents. The implementation of this solution will be carried out by the team in close collaboration with influential groups at community level, notably religious and community leaders in awareness-raising sessions.

Targeted workshops for religious and community leaders (administrators, young leaders or peer educators, parents, educators, community health workers, heads of community structures for the protection of children and people with special needs) will be organized for the education of young people and adolescents.

The theory of change targeted by the KUZIKO GAME solution would result in the consolidation of the awareness of Burundian youth in targeted areas through capacity building on sexual and reproductive health and rights. 

To achieve this change, an intermediate change is needed, defined as the improvement of knowledge and skills at school level and in the community through interactive card games. 

This change will be achieved through: (a) Raising the awareness of community and religious leaders and school managers through sensitization and participatory education, (b) Setting up intergenerational dialogues at the level of families, schools, churches and communities to sustainably prevent unwanted pregnancies, clandestine abortions, early marriages, STI-HIV/AIDS,  ...) among young people and adolescents; c) Improving frameworks for exchange and dialogue with community players, who should be more involved in educating young people and adolescents about sexual and reproductive health and rights in their communities; and d) Addressing the specific needs of vulnerable people and victims of violence at family and community level.

 Full-time staff:6

 Part-time staff:10

 Contractors:5

KUZIKO GAME is a solution designed and implemented by APROSAP/ARFH in 2021 with financial support from Share-net International as part of its "Small Grant SNI 2021" program. The project team has been working on this solution for 2 years.

We affirm our commitment to equality, participation and respect for human dignity. Our efforts to advance equality and non-discrimination are a pillar on which we build our programs. In our interactions within the organization and with our external stakeholders, we do not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, religion, gender or social status. Our project targets are considered as major players in their own development, rather than mere beneficiaries of our products and services.

Despite legal and regulatory provisions promoting gender equality, the status and living conditions of women and girls in Burundi are still marked by significant disparities compared to men. APROSAP has understood the importance of taking gender equity into account in setting up its bodies, as it is headed by a woman. The project will help to correct existing disparities, as young girls are among the beneficiaries. The project will tackle the gender issue first by targeting young girls among those to be sensitized.

KUZIKO Game is a product designed to raise awareness of sexual and reproductive health among young people and teenagers in an attractive, fun way. But also, to break taboos on parent-child dialogue engendered by socio-cultural barriers around sexual and reproductive health.

The beneficiaries of our solution are adolescents and young people and their parents, schools, youth-friendly health centers and centers for young people, associations/organizations working in the field of sexual health, and community-based cooperatives.

The KUZIKO GAME solution differs from other SRH approaches more commonly used in Burundi in that it is both entertaining and educational. It enables a maximum amount of reliable and comprehensive information to be conveyed in SRH within a limited timeframe.

It also makes it possible to tackle subjects considered taboo by society in a fun and friendly way and facilitates active and inclusive participation without discrimination. Once we've been out in the field, the beneficiaries stay involved, asking for us back.

To implement our program, the team first intends to involve young peer educators in youth centers, youth-friendly health centers  and health clubs within schools. These young peer educators will be trained and reinforced in the rules for using the KUZIKO Game, which will in turn make it easier to raise awareness among their peers. These young people will be given priority as focal points in their districts.

Secondly, the public and private sector players involved in SRH. They will be recognized as customers of the product, because once they have authenticated the effectiveness of the product and the quality of the information provided, they will order KUZIKO Games for use in their respective activities.

To reach our users, who are largely young people and teenagers, we will be planning a schedule of visits to schools, youth-friendly health centers and youth centers.

KUZIKO GAME is a playful solution that offers comfort in peer-to-peer and parent-child discussion about ASRH. The success of our project is measured by various indicators. The existence of the product is considered a first success in the transmission and sharing of information on ASRH. The other point that will characterize the success of our project is the level of use of our product by young people in youth centers/spaces. The number of families who use KUZIKO Game to engage in discussions about sex education with their children.

To implement our program, the main expenses are the multiplication of KUZIKO Games, visits to meeting places with beneficiaries as well as training and/or exchange workshops. The other category of expenditure relates to staff costs and travel expenses for the project team.

Action pour la Promotion de la Santé Publique (APROSAP) is a Burundian non-profit organization governed by the law of January 01, 2017, on non-profit associations (ASBLs). This law does not authorize ASBLs to engage in income-generating activities. Indeed, in Burundi, ASBLs operate with the help of dues/contributions from their effective members and sympathizers, with subcontracting carried out by its members, under financing through calls for proposals and partnership activities, Donations from fundraisings to Bequests as well as other support delivered by private individuals and companies. 

 In addition, our interactive map game product (KUZIKO GAME) has been developed in 2021 by the "APROSAP/ARFH" consortium under Share Net International in its Small Grants 2021 program, This means that Burundian civil society organizations or youth support centers wishing to use our kits (KUZIKO GAME interactive card games) to raise awareness of sexual and reproductive health and rights among their clients/beneficiaries must approach our technical team and undertake to pay all expenses linked to the production of these kits according to the quantity requested.