Around 180 young women and adolescent girls from Malawi, Kenya and Uganda have led a pilot project that aims to
strengthen the leadership of young women and adolescent girls in the AIDS response. Called Empowerment + Engagement = Equality, the programme aims to build
stronger leadership among young women and adolescent girls to engage in national assessments initiated by the All In to #EndAdolescentAIDS platform.
The programme addresses
issues of gender inequality that heighten adolescent girls’
vulnerability to HIV infection and provides safe spaces
where experiences can be shared.
The initiative, designed and implemented by UN Women and
the International Planned Parenthood Federation, mobilized
more than 1000 young advocates, including young women
living with HIV, to voice their concerns at the local, regional
and national levels. As well as sharing knowledge among
themselves, the participants engaged in face-to-face and
online meetings with parents, teachers, religious leaders
and other community stakeholders to discuss how to change
harmful gender norms and inequalities that increase the risk
of HIV infection.
The First Lady of Malawi, Gertrude Mutharik, participated in
one of the discussions and committed her support to
challenging the issues that increase the risk of HIV infection
among young women, including gender-based violence.
The
young leaders have continued to advocate at the highest
levels, taking part in debates at the International AIDS
Conference in Durban, South Africa, in July 2016.
“Some of the most fulfilling work I have done as part of this
project is to support other girls like me to feel empowered
and in control of their lives,” said Divina Kemunto, from
Kenya, “I shared my personal experience and encouraged
girls living with HIV to believe that they too can walk with
their heads held high and a smile on their face.”
Preventing new HIV infections among adolescent girls and
young women in sub-Saharan Africa is crucial if the world is
to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030—in 2015, 75% of new HIV
infections in sub-Saharan Africa among adolescents were
among adolescent girls aged 10–19 years.
Preventing
infections means empowering young women and girls to
stay in school so they have better economic prospects,
ensuring that they have the knowledge, information and
tools to avoid unintended pregnancy and sexually
transmitted infections and making sure they know what to
do when faced with sexual violence.
Laws and policies that discriminate against women and girls
must be dismantled and their sexual and reproductive
health and rights must be fully respected.
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