Twaweza Afrika Foundation

What is peace for girls and young women when they are forced to drop out of school due to early parenthood? What is peace when a 16-year-old girl is neglected by her family, trapped in impoverished conditions, and loses her value to a patriarchal man who takes advantage of her vulnerability and abuses her pride and dignity? Where is the peace? Peace is when the mind is at ease and when society promotes systems that allow young people to grow and thrive. But this is not the case in Kenya. Owed to the 14 years of civil unrest, Kenya lacks some key elements that promote the growth and well-being of young people, especially women. The country promotes a culture, where sex and sexual reproductive health are taboo to talk about amongst adults and children. Approximately 14% of adolescent young women and girls give birth before attaining age 18 globally.

Meanwhile, upon puberty, young women become sexually active oftentimes resulting in sexual relationships with their male counterparts. However, the lack of sex education and limited resources on reproductive health have forced them to engage in risky sexual practices that have left them vulnerable to either sexually transmitted diseases, or pregnancy at very young ages. For example, 67 percent of adolescent girls with no education are either pregnant or at least have their first child to care for. Poverty, hunger and lack of economic alternatives lead many adolescent girls to take significant risks. Sexual relationships between adolescent girls and older partners are a common source of money for food, school fees and other necessities for poor adolescent girls in many settings.

Lack of information on SRH often causes many adolescent girls to fall pregnant and therefore drop out of school, where unwanted pregnancies and early marriages frequently put an end to their aspirations for education and an economic livelihood. Although the Education Policy in Kenya allows girls to return to school after giving birth, 38% of the girls do not go back to school. The process of re-admission often takes long, sometimes up to 2 years which is a setback for young women already battling community pressure to get married rather than return to school.

Physical and sexual violence is also one of the barriers to adolescent girls as they attempt to achieve their educational aspirations. Some girls are physically/emotionally tricked into having sex. Experiences of sexual violence lead to severe consequences in girls’ health and development such as depression, anxiety, risk of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. Many communities have negative attitudes towards the benefit of educating girls and as a result lower priority is given to girls’ education. In a developing country like Kenya, one cannot imagine the destitution that comes with early parenthood. This is what my team wants to fight against. The goal of our project is to initiate a knowledge-based system that empowers young women with education about their sexual reproductive health rights whilst creating a safe space that enhances their growth and development.

The goal of our project is to innovate and develop an effective Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) knowledge-based system that empowers young women with education about their sexual reproductive health rights whilst creating a safe space that enhances their growth and development. The following approaches will be part of the Twaweza Africa Foundation Knowledge Based System;

• The system will focus on capacity building, community mobilization and outreach activities. The project will be implemented by working with existing community systems and structures in each local context.
• Communities varies with regards to the context and challenges faced by target community; in some communities the openness and awareness of SRHR is greater than in others. Whereas in other communities there has been an increased need to focus on building relationships with key stakeholders, sensitize and build capacity as a strategy towards enhancing the Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) services for Young women.
• Emphasis will be placed on child participation through the engagement of young women in order to understand their needs and views on SRHR.
• Various strategies including advocacy will also be used to promote access and utilization of quality SRHR services. This includes making the services more accessible to Young women.
• A bottom-up approach advocacy intervention, with community-led strategies, will be used to influence decision making.
• Local level advocacy involves working with community gate keepers, community leadership structures and community media to advocate social acceptance of practices that promote the SRHR for young women.
• Engaging the general community and stakeholders (including religious leaders, traditional leaders, community leaders and civil society leaders) who are involved in SRHR work to champion for the development and implementation of relevant policies. Engaging the sub-county administrators to create an enabling environment for the promotion of adolescent SRHR at regional level and to improve knowledge management and shared learning.

Expected Outputs to the beneficiaries

The project focuses on the following main intended outcomes

• Healthier girls and young women with changed behaviour and making informed decisions about their SRHR including information about contraceptives and safe abortion options.
• Increased number of adolescent girls enrolling in and completing upper primary and lower secondary education.
• Increased number of adolescent girls with improved knowledge on their right to quality education and sexual reproductive health services. 
• Increased number of parents and community members with improved knowledge on the importance of girls’ education and agree that physical violence against girls is unacceptable.
• Increased number of adolescent girls engaged and participating in decision making at local levels including school management committees. 
• Change in cultural/traditional practices that hinder knowledge on SRHR issues in communities to reduce stigma surrounding SRHR.
• Increased number of care givers who agree that girls’ right to education has to be fulfilled. 
• Health workers and other service providers (non-clinical) have change in mind-sets leading to more youth friendly services.
• Increased number of duty bearers (teachers, government officials and members of school management committees) trained on universal child right to education .
• Increased % of girls believing that their concerns are acted upon by school management.
• Community and County Level - Increased and improved media coverage on SRHR issues.
• Increased number of adolescent girls who feel confident/listened to/respected by community members.
• Increased number of older girls accessing financial assistance for education from external actors such as local authorities and NGOs like Plan International.
• Reduced % of parents citing financial barriers as a reason for adolescent girls not attending school 
• Increased number of schools defined as “girl friendly” by adolescent girl pupils.
• Increased number of national and local education policies made more gender-responsive 
• Increased number of teachers trained with increased knowledge about gender-responsive treatment of boys and girls (i.e. challenging stereotypes, not enforcing gender roles) 
• Increased budget allocation to the education sector by the government.
• Development and Implementation of policies that discourage early marriages through Advocacy for SRHR rights and policies that prioritize youth needs.
• Increased number of girls and boys with improved knowledge on SRHR (i.e. prevention methods and condom use negotiation) 
• Increased number of girls and boys who accessed SRHR services at least once in a duration of 6 months intervals.    

To successfully implement this project, Twaweza Afrika Foundation will use its existing structures and those available at county level consisting of County Facilitators and Sub County Mobilisers to map out and reach out to the target group.

Moreover, we will engage local level advocacy involves working with community gate keepers, community leadership structures and community media to advocate social acceptance of practices that promote the SRHR for young women. We will engage the general community and stakeholders (including religious leaders, traditional leaders, community leaders and civil society leaders) who are involved in SRHR work to champion for the development and implementation of relevant policies. Additionally, the sub-county administrators will be engaged to create an enabling environment for the promotion of adolescent SRHR at regional level and to improve knowledge management and shared learning.

Twaweza Afrika Foundation has an operational Project Monitoring and Evaluation committee consisting of a team of qualified expertise. The committee will undertake  Monitoring and evaluation through Technical review meetings; Field assessment reports; Quarterly reports; Quarterly financial reports; End of project mini survey and production of an End of project final technical and financial reports.

The sustainability of the project is guaranteed as the project will use already existing structures in the communities. The project will build the capacity of the community to sustain the services provided by this project. The project beneficiaries will own the project as they will be involved in all stages of the project and this sense of ownership will ensure that the project is sustained beyond the life of the project.

A key solution approach of the project is partnership, especially to ensure sustainability. To firstly implement the project, we will partner with a local NGO that promotes education and young women’s empowerment. After the workshops, girls will establish a young women’s club in their school to continuously learn and be empowered. Young women would meet biweekly to learn, discuss and share a topics on SRHR. They will lead the affairs of the club as a way of stimulating their leadership potentials, but with mentorship and supervision from me, my team. We will pair the club leaders with mentors from our team to provide additional training for the club leadership.

• More than 150 families; 
• 650 Young People

The project is meant to innovate in order to improve on a knowledge-based system that empowers young women with education about their sexual reproductive health rights whilst creating a safe space that enhances their growth and development.

 The grant money will be spent or used to facilitate the following activities;

• Support cyber debate and the production radio & TV programmes that discuss issues affecting girls’ education.
• Support the production of adolescent magazine to discuss issues affecting girls in general and education in particular. The magazine will be featuring stories written by adolescent girls from their own experiences.
• Support adolescent girls’ visits to different offices for them to see and appreciate how female managers and others work, and to be inspired to work hard at school to achieve this.
• Support girls’ conferences where girls will be brought together to share ideas and experiences. During these conferences, female role models will be invited to inspire the girls.
•  Raising awareness among parents, teachers, community & traditional leaders and County government officials on girl’s participation and their role in addressing barriers to girls education in their communities.
•  Support structured interface meetings/forums between adolescent girls on one hand and teachers, community leaders and county government officials on the other hand to lobby for the integration of girls into the governance structures including school management committees (SMCs) in the sub-county.
• Mobilize parents of school going adolescent girls to form groups that would be engaged in micro-finance interventions. The parent will use the money generate from these activities to support girls’ education.
• Support the training of 300 out of school girls to acquire entrepreneurial and vocational skills to expand their livelihood opportunities
• Support the training of adolescent boys and girls to acquire information and skills on sexual reproductive health and to take action to reduce risky behaviors. SRHR information will include adolescents’ rights to bodily integrity, including being free from violence, to choose their own sexual partners, when they want to have children, what form on contraceptives to use, parenting and relationships.
• Facilitate the strengthening of Youth Friendly Spaces at community level for information dissemination and empowerment of adolescents - for them to challenge the norms and attitudes preventing girls from accessing their rights as young people, and how to prevent HIV & STI infection and early pregnancies.
•  Facilitate linkages between the adolescents and health service providers to improve the availability and accessibility of quality, adolescent friendly reproductive and sexual health services.
• Collaborate with other NGOs to advocate for the implementation of national policies and services for the elimination of violence against girls, with special focus on early marriages. The advocacy will be in the form of lobbying members of parliament and other policy makers.
• Engage men and boys to prevent violence against girls and reduce risky sexual behaviors through awareness-raising and sensitization activities as change agents in their communities. 

Impact Goals;

• Increased number of adolescent girls enrolling in and completing upper primary and lower secondary education by 2024.
• Increased number of adolescent girls with improved knowledge on their right to quality education and sexual reproductive health services.
• Increased number of parents and community members with improved knowledge on the importance of girls’ education and agree that physical violence against girls is unacceptable.
• Increased number of adolescent girls engaged and participating in decision making at local levels including school management committees.
• Change in cultural/traditional practices that hinder knowledge on SRHR issues in communities to reduce stigma surrounding SRHR.
• Increased number of care givers who agree that girls’ right to education has to be fulfilled.
• Health workers and other service providers (non-clinical) have change in mind-sets leading to more youth friendly services.
• Increased number of duty bearers (teachers, government officials and members of school management committees) trained on universal child right to education .
• Increased % of girls believing that their concerns are acted upon by school management.
• Community and County Level - Increased and improved media coverage on SRHR issues.
• Increased number of adolescent girls who feel confident/listened to/respected by community members.
• Increased number of older girls accessing financial assistance for education from external actors such as local authorities and NGOs like Plan International.
• Reduced % of parents citing financial barriers as a reason for adolescent girls not attending school
• Increased number of schools defined as “girl friendly” by adolescent girl pupils.
• Increased number of national and local education policies made more gender-responsive
• Increased number of teachers trained with increased knowledge about gender-responsive treatment of boys and girls (i.e. challenging stereotypes, not enforcing gender roles)
• Increased budget allocation to the education sector by the government.
• Development and Implementation of policies that discourage early marriages through Advocacy for SRHR rights and policies that prioritize youth needs.
• Increased number of girls and boys with improved knowledge on SRHR (i.e. prevention methods and condom use negotiation) Increased number of girls and boys who accessed SRHR services at least once in a duration of by 2027 months intervals.         

The General objective;

To promote the Health of Adolescents and Young People with changed behaviour and making informed decisions about their Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights.

 Specific Objectives;

• To promote the SRHR of children, adolescents and young people through the provision of comprehensive sexuality education focusing on gender sensitive approaches
• To increase access for children, adolescents and young people to clinical and nonclinical
• SRHR services including community based services
• To create an enabling legislative and policy environment in the selected countries through advocating for legislation that promotes the realisation of the SRHR of children, adolescents and young people at the national and regional level
• To improve the knowledge management and shared learning on SRHR at regional level

Support the training of 300 adolescents, young women from the Narok West sub-county community on their right to education, gender, mental health issues, substance abuse and sexual & reproductive health services.

Engage a consultant to work with adolescents to track government budget and expenditures at sub-county and national levels for capacity building for teachers, school management, infrastructure development i.e., sanitation facilities, school maintenance and supplies provided that will benefit the girls’ education. Information gather from this exercise will be used to lobby for increased budget allocation towards education programmes in the national budget

List of the Foundation's Staff

• 1)Verah Chepkorir –Chief Executive Officer
• 2)Robert Sigei-Deputy Chief Executive Officer
• 3)Christine Oburu – Project Manager
• 4)Lauryn Chelang'at - Accountant
• 5)Cherono Langa't – Human Resource officer
• 6)Stella Kerubo - office administrator
• 7)Marthen Ayiecha - office messenger
• 8)Faith Cherop -Secretary/receptionist
• 9)Kipkoech Isaac-Hygiene Officer

For more than two years.

Everyone, including adolescents, has the right to access information and services that they need to take care of their bodies. Adolescent girls and boys 10-19 years of age need special attention and sexual and reproductive health information and care that meet their needs. This includes the right to learn how to prevent sexually transmitted infections, like HIV, and access to pregnancy prevention methods, like condoms and pills, if they are not ready to have children and special care if they are pregnant.

Traditional gender norms around marriage and childbearing often constrain girls’ opportunities for education. Many communities have negative attitudes towards the benefit of educating girls and as a result lower priority is given to girls’ education. Girls are seen as relatively transitory assets not worth of long term investment, as they leave their parents’ household upon marriage. Spending valuable resources such as money to pay for their education is therefore considered a waste because they are expected to be supported by their husbands once they get married. Often believed to be less worthy of education, girls tend to receive less and miss out on opportunities to socialise, acquire knowledge, gain skills and autonomy, so perpetuating the vicious circle in which they are trapped.

The underlying causes of violence against girls are attributed to inadequate knowledge and understanding of the value of girls’ right to participation and protection. Therefore, the achievement of the above outcome will promote by over 50% of the SRHR of children, adolescents and young people through the provision of comprehensive sexuality education focusing on gender sensitive

Approaches. We are aiming at bring inspiration to every girl child in our communities.

ITEM

Details

Ksh.(Total)

STAFF COSTS

Project Manager

1 Pax

30,000

Director

1 Pax

60,000

Accountant

1 Pax

32,000

Monitoring and Evaluation Committee

1 Pax

50,000

Project Proposal development

Consultation Fee

1 Pax

70,000

Project Implementation Committee

1 Pax

80,000

Sub-Total

322,000.00

EQUIPMENT                 

Laptop

1 Psc

60,000

Desktop

1Pcs

30,000

Printer/Photocopier

1 Pcs

75,000

Sub-Total

165,000.00

PROJECT ACTIVITIES COST          

Activity 1:  Awareness creation /sensitization

250,000

 Activity 2: Capacity Building

150,000

 Activity 3: Training

800,000

 Activity 4: Advocacy Interventions

250,000

 Activity 5: Collaboration and linkages

160,000           

1,610,000.00

ADMINISTRATIVE  COSTS

Office Space/rent

40,000

Communications

50,000

Stationary

Assorted

40,000

Staff Travel  & other contingency cost

60,000

 Sub-Total

190,000.00

GRANT TOTAL

2,287,000.00

The sustainability of the project is guaranteed as the project will use already existing structures in the communities. The project will build the capacity of the community to sustain the services provided by this project. The project beneficiaries will own the project as they will be involved in all stages of the project and this sense of ownership will ensure that the project is sustained beyond the life of the project.

A key solution approach of the project is partnership, especially to ensure sustainability. To firstly implement the project, we will partner with a local NGO that promotes education and young women’s empowerment.

After the workshops, girls will establish a young women’s club in their school to continuously learn and be empowered. Young women would meet biweekly to learn, discuss and share a topics on SRHR.

They will lead the affairs of the club as a way of stimulating their leadership potentials, but with mentorship and supervision from me, my team. We will pair the club leaders with mentors from our team to provide additional training for the club leadership.