Background
Gender norms in Zimbabwe encourage men to have multiple sexual partners and older men to have sexual relations with much younger women, putting these women at greater risk of HIV, STIs and unwanted pregnancies. The university students at Great Zimbabwe University are within the sexually active age group and being away from parental guidance for the first time means they have increased freedom to experiment. Some of the students were also born HIV positive and need guidance and support to maintain their treatment.

About the project
This project was created to promote adoption of safer sexual and reproductive health practices among young people at Great Zimbabwe University, Mashava Campus. The project team focused on boosting the students’ knowledge of HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and increasing the availability of youth friendly SRHR services – particularly family planning and condom usage.

Results
So far, 34 peer educators (male and female) from the university campus have been trained by the project team. These peer educators have conducted dialogues, video screenings and information dissemination sessions on SRHR and reached more than 750 students.  The peer educators also distributed 8 000 male condoms and 200 female condoms. As a result of the peer educators’ referrals, the college health facilities recorded an increase in the number of students accessing their services. Going forward, the project team will continue to train peer educators and select new ones from each batch of incoming students.

Year: 2016