SRHR Education for Girls through Soccer: Youth Changers Kenya
What is the relationship between SRHR and success in girls’ education? AMPLIFY Girls believes in approaching girls' education holistically; where girls are not only supported to gain access to school fees and material support but also equipping them with everything they need to pursue their education and thrive.
SRHR Soccer Program - Youth Changers Kenya (YCK)
Adolescent girls experience an insurmountable number of barriers to their education. While girls’ education is still recovering from the loss in learning due to Covid-19, there have been other factors at play way before Covid-19, including lack of access to SRHR Education and Services leading to unintended pregnancies and school dropouts among adolescent girls. As a preventative measure, our partner Youth Changers Kenya (YCK) uses sports to create safe spaces for girls to learn about their sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR). By using sports as a tool for SRHR education, YCK instills Agency in young women and girls to speak up against sexual violence and make informed decisions about their future, including pursuing education.
In 2013, through the leadership of the UN, the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) Commitment was signed to implement Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Sexual Reproductive Health services for adolescent girls. One of the clauses in the commitment included the implementation of comprehensive sexuality education in the school curriculum. To date, comprehensive sexuality education has not been fully implemented in schools.
In Kenya for example, students find content on sexuality education in comic books and newspapers in the school library but are not comprehensively prepared in class for what awaits them in the real world when schools close. When crises strike, these girls fall prey to sexual violence without a voice to speak out or the knowledge of where to seek help. Cases of school dropouts due to unintended pregnancies are on the rise because of this and the victims are young girls who do not have the tools to protect themselves.
Adolescent girls in marginalized communities in East Africa have it worse where girls have little to no access to youth-friendly services, menstrual hygiene, or sexuality education. During crises like drought, flooding, or Covid-19, these girls are usually vulnerable to sexual violence as they turn to transactional sex to buy food and menstrual products for themselves.
To ensure young women and girls pursue their education safely without interruption, AMPLIFY’s partner Community-driven Organizations in East Africa are stepping up and coming up with creative ways to reach out to adolescent girls through in-school and out of school activities like sports, that are tailored to instill Agency in girls; giving them the tools to speak up for themselves and make informed choices.
Sports bring about a sense of community in societies. From a young age, playing in the field with fellow children created a sense of belonging in young girls and boys and even the entire community who came to cheer on their family members. For adolescent girls who live in poverty, sports like soccer acts as an outlet and a safe space where for 90 minutes, they forget about the situation at home, have fun, make friends, and even get a sense of direction. Sports has a stabilizing effect for these girls, some even decide to make a career out of it. For local organizations, sports are a perfect setting for community mentorship programs to guide adolescent girls and youth in the community.
YCK SRHR Soccer Program
In Kenya’s rural and peri-urban areas, Youth Changers Kenya came up with a creative way to inspire Agency in girls through SRHR based sports programs. Founded in 2015, the girl-based organization promotes sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and addresses systemic issues of sexual violence and teenage pregnancies among adolescent girls and young women from Kakamega and Kiambu communities. In a sports program conducted in Kiambu, YCK used soccer to create fun, safe spaces for girls to learn and talk about their sexual reproductive health rights and disseminate SRHR information and services among girls and young women.
YCK did this by working with young women advocates based in Kiambu who mobilized adolescent girls from football teams in different villages to participate in soccer tournaments. These YCK advocates also moderated the SRHR talks that took place before the games. They were able to select 100 girls and created 5 teams to participate in the tournaments. Since they were selected from their home teams, the girls found it easy to speak about sexual health within their teams.
From the program, 26 girls were able to access contraceptive services and many of them approached the YCK advocates to ask about sexual health-related questions. The topics addressed in the SRHR talks included sexuality, safe sex, healthy relationships, HIV, STIs, consent, menstrual hygiene, and contraceptives. Through their work, Youth Changers Kenya seeks to provide girls with the knowledge and skills necessary to pursue education, delay pregnancy, make informed choices and build self-confidence.
Enabling girls’ access to education must take a holistic approach. Providing school fees and material support is not enough, girls living in marginalized communities are facing greater barriers to education beyond economic challenges. Girls need Agency and access to SRHR information to continue their education and return to school and why not make it fun! To provide adolescent girls with the support they need, we must resource and recognize Community-driven Organizations like Youth Changers Kenya who are filling in the SRHR education gap, championing girls' rights on the ground; providing solutions by girls for the girls.