Background
Poverty, peer pressure and lack of knowledge about sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) has led many girls in Nangwenya community to have unprotected sex and engage in transactional sex. The government policy in Zambia does not allow condom distribution in schools, which creates a barrier for these girls in terms of accessing basic contraceptive methods.

About the project
This project was created to increase the demand and access to SRHR information and quality services for adolescent girls at local health institutions in Nyangwenya community. In order to achieve this, the project team focused on raising the awareness of SRHR among girls aged 13-19 – both in and out of school. The project also included creating youth friendly points for adolescent girls to access SRHR services at health centres in Nangwenya and advocating for policy changes to benefit young girls in the community.

Results
15 local adolescents have been trained as peer educators and they have managed to reach and recruit over 150 additional girls in the community. An example is a 16-year old girl who was brought back to school after being married and is now pursuing her studies again. She is now a peer educator on teen pregnancies and child marriages.

So far, 76 500 condoms have been distributed to adolescents and 1008 people have accessed HIV testing and counselling over a period of three months – compared to 12 200 and 398 for the same period before the project. The project team have established a youth friendly corner at a health clinic and have received support from both traditional leaders and ward counsellors, who have now become change agents in their community.