YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
Pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15–19 years globally. Many of these pregnancies are unwanted, unplanned and result in birth complications or botched, illegal abortions. Kisii County has a high rate of teen pregnancy, with 37 percent of teenage girls being sexually active and 23 percent of girls ages 13-19 having experienced a pregnancy. In Kisii, KIKOP began a pilot program in two schools, reaching 470 children in grades 4 through 8 with the goal of empowering youth to choose responsible and safe reproductive health behaviors.
OUR MODEL
The Uwezeshazi Vijana (Ki-Swahili for "empowering youth") Innovative Curriculum Programme goes beyond traditional sexual education to include additional lessons on emotional intelligence and responsible decision-making. The curriculum also covers essential knowledge of human sexual/reproductive health, adolescent nutrition, and personal/menstrual hygiene. By incorporating life skills and emotional development as a foundation of the sexual reproductive health curriculum, adolescents feel empowered with cognitive and emotional skills they need for choosing responsible sexual reproductive health behavior.
OUR IMPACT
Abundant research shows that fact-based reproductive health education -the kind taught in
Kenya- does not change adolescent behavior. Due to adolescent cognitive and emotional
immaturity, knowing the consequences of risky sexual behavior is not enough to bring about
adolescent behavioral change. To foster responsible decision-making and sexual behavior, our
curriculum develops necessary intrapersonal strengths such as self-awareness, emotional
intelligence, self-efficacy and self-esteem.
Through our adolescent outreach program, we have successfully conducted formative research in order to understand the context behind the lack of uptake of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education. As a result, we have incorporated an SRH curriculum at two pilot schools, in which both male and female students have engaged the participatory lessons the make up our innovative curriculum.