Meeting the Development and Participation Rights of Adolescent Girls

The project identified 5 barriers to girls' obtaining equality; they included low participation of girls in development activities in the communities; poor education attainment; poor reproductive health; lack of vocational skills training; and low socio-economic status. The project's strategy is to address these barriers in a manner that includes the whole community. The aim is to facilitate positive changes in attitude and behaviour on the part of the community.

In that context, the community was involved in the entire planning process: Community members identified the problems and their suggested interventions. One hundred adolescents were trained in agriculture, sewing, and computers; in addition, 24 project staff were trained in the development of information, education, and communication materials. The project trained a total of 276 peer educators and close to 2000 teachers on how to reduce drop-out rates among girls and improve their school performance. A total of 641 girls were trained in life skills and a total of 137 community- based condom distributors were also trained.

Project activities included establishment of girls-only clubs, low-cost community youth centres, adolescent girls' literacy programmes, youth-friendly health services, and sexual reproductive health services for out-of-school young people.

HIV/AIDS, Rights, Education, Reproductive Health, Girls.

According to organisers, "Culturally in Malawi, the socialisation process victimises girls because they are considered to be the weaker sex. Spending valuable resources such as money to pay for their education is considered a waste because they are expected to get married and be supported by their husbands. Their profile in society has remained low and their voices have not been heard. Despite having rights as a child, obstacles exist that impinge on the fulfillment of the rights. As a result, girls' educational attainment has remained low, their health, especially reproductive health, has been poor, they lack training in most vocational skills and generally, their participation in development activities has been very minimal. In the past, some mechanisms were put in place to try and improve the participation of girls, such as through free secondary school education. However, such mechanisms have been short lived and did not solve the problem. This points to the need for the project to look into a more workable system of assisting girls to remain in school, healthy, skilled and economically empowered thereby improving their position in society and increasing their participation in leadership and decision-making processes in society."

SAY comprises 9 independent projects located in 8 of southern Africa's most severely affected countries, as well as a sub-regional technical support project (Telling the Story). Through the work of UN country teams, SAY aims to catalyse innovative and expanded national responses to the HIV and AIDS epidemic to meet the needs of the youth in southern Africa, especially girls, who are most vulnerable to HIV infection.