Supporting out-of-school Adolescent girls in Uganda through Sexual and reproductive Health education.
Adolescent girls face many barriers in exercising their Sexual and Reproductive Health rights,. The cost of these barriers are devastating and deadly. Barred from seeking services and making decisions about their health, one to 4 adolescent girls become mothers every year in Uganda.*
Out-of-school adolescent girls between 10-19 across their intersecting diversities (e.g married, young mothers, single mother, girls with disabilities, child early forced marriages (CEFM) and gender based violence (GBV) survivors) represent the most marginalised and vulnerable populations related to SRHR outcomes.
Sexual and reproductive Health and Economic empowerment (SHE) Supporting Out-of school Adolescent girls’ Rights and Skills (SOARS) is a seven year project funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC). It was launched in partnership with CARE on 31st March 2022.
SHE SOARS supports out-of-school adolescent girls that are consistently left out of traditional adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) programming.
These girls are usually difficult to reach, and often have the greatest need and least access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services.
The chosen intervention sites of this project include:
- Urban and semi-urban informal settlements in Kenya
- Rural Zambia
- Refugee host communities in Uganda particularly like Madi-Okolo, Terego, Arua and Kampala districts.
SHE SOARS activities include:
- Providing training and support to educators and health care providers to ensure that adolescents have access to sexuality education (SE) and providing SE directly through skills and training packages to youth groups.
- Working with local groups, health providers and government ministries to build capacity and improve access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services for out-of-school adolescents.
- Financial and capacity support to women’s rights organisations and youth-led organisations to conduct advocacy on SRHR to influence legal and policy change.
- Deep community engagement and accomplishment to transform social and gender norms that are barriers to adolescent girls and boys including their right to bodily autonomy.
