ADOLESCENT HEALTH
Kisii County has a large population of young people, with 45% of the total population being below the age of 15 and one in four (25%) people being between the ages of 10-19. In many parts of Africa, young people in Kenya face considerable challenges to their health and well-being while attempting to stay in school, find gainful employment, and negotiate relationships while postponing marriage and childbearing and avoiding sexually transmitted infections (STIs. Adolescent sexuality and reproductive health still remain highly charged moral issues, and this is compounded by the fact that in most cases, reproductive health services are not oriented towards adequately meeting their needs. One in five girls (18%) within the county have began childbearing, resulting in high teenage pregnancy rates, some of them unwanted. This greatly impacts long term outcomes for these adolescent girls, due to stigma of teenage pregnancy and girls having to drop out of school, ultimately limiting their social mobility.
Due to the clear need for comprehensive SRH education that communicates accurate information, KIKOP has sought to address the gaps in the current model of SRH education within schools and the lack of youth friendly services in the medical context. KIKOP conducted formative research to understand the context of adolescent SRH through engaging key stakeholders in focus group discussions, key informant interviews and robust literature review.
As part of the formative research study, a collection of stakeholder feedback in the form of key informant interviews and parent/teacher group discussions identified a gap in adolescent SRH education and information access.The study found parents, teachers, and other community stakeholders assume adolescents are currently accessing SRH information from siblings, teachers, peers, electronic media, CHVs and other community members. KIKOP sought to mitigate these gaps of providing SRH education through our adolescent program which empowered students to hone their decision making skillset--encouraging them to make informed decisions, build confidence, and ultimately strengthen their self-esteem.
