How a Pathfinder Program is Supporting Youth on International Youth Day – and, Every Day!
Pathfinder’s Her Future, Her Choice Project removes barriers to critical sexual and reproductive health information and services for adolescent girls and young women ages 10-24 years in Ethiopia and Mozambique. Today, on International Youth Day, Pathfinder features two of the incredible stories of communities working to empower these young people – from preventing child marriage in Ethiopia to bringing critical health services where girls and boys need them most.
Ethiopia
Self Advocacy, Community Advocacy: Tseganat Prevents Child Marriage
In fifth grade, Tseganat Abebe got some very unwelcome news – her grandparents were arranging her marriage to a 26-year old man, without her consent.
But Tseganat happened to be a peer educator with the Her Future, Her Choice project, and she had received training on sexual and reproductive health and rights – as well as ‘assertive communication,’ just the year before.
She would need it for the challenge ahead. Armed with knowledge and confidence, Tseganat knew just where to start.
First, Tseganat immediately reached out to her sexual and reproductive health and rights club leader at her school and the youth-friendly services provider at her local health center. She also informed them that four of her school friends were facing similar forced marriages.
The school director then convened a meeting of the local Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Committee to discuss the issue, and invited Tseganat’s father, Abebe Mengistie, a religious leader in the community.
The committee members worked tirelessly to convince not only Tseganat’s father but also the other parents to cancel the scheduled marriages. They knew that child marriage can have devastating consequences for young girls, including dropping out of school and having high-risk pregnancies.
But, the combined efforts of the health service providers, alongside school teachers, community police officers, and trained peer educators—including Tseganat!—led to the successful cancelation of all the forced wedding arrangements in the community.
Tseganat, her parents, and her friends are relieved that these girls can continue their educations at Birbir Elementary School. Tseganat has been recognized for her role as a mobilizer, activator, negotiator, and advocate in preventing child and forced marriages, as well as other harmful traditional practices. In fact, the Sekota Zuria Woreda (the local area where Tseganat lives) and GBV Committees successfully canceled more than 30 attempted adolescent girl marriages the previous year.
This remarkable collaboration between the school, health center, GBV Committee, and community—through Tseganat’s leadership— demonstrated the power of collective action in preventing child marriage and empowering young people to take charge of their own lives.
Her Future, Her Choice works to:
- Build the capacity of public health workers to provide high-quality gender-responsive, youth-friendly comprehensive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services.
- Shift negative attitudes about sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
- Establish and empower community organizations to combat harmful traditional practices, including gender-based violence.
- Empower women and girls with knowledge and skills to adopt healthy behaviors and advocate for their SRHR through peer education.
- Ensure women and girls have access to critical reproductive information and health services.
- Network, collaborate, and partner with public and private organizations to scale up and sustain SRH information and services.
Mozambique
How a ‘health corner’ at the Mocuba Secondary School brings services where girls need them
One key to ensuring girls get the care they need? Meeting them where they are at. That’s why, in March 2021, Her Future, Her Choice established a health corner at the Mocuba Secondary School in Mozambique.
Nurse Julia Ernesto definitely believes in the work. She started making visits to the health corner toward the end of 2022, where she provided counseling on sexuality, prevention of gender-based violence, contraception, mental health, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) , HIV, nutrition, safe abortion, circumcision, and menstrual health management. She and fellow health workers also offered contraceptive pills, male and female condoms, de-worming, iron salts, and referrals to health facilities. Many adolescents, she understood, wouldn’t come to her health facility – but they would come and see her at school.
“It is important to come to school, because there is a greater opportunity to work with many adolescents and young people of both sexes. I say this because not all adolescents arrive at the health facility on their own initiative. Not all teenagers would have come to [the health facility]—this due to lack of information, fear of entering the [health facility], or fear of being seen by people they know […] I think all schools should have a school health corner.”
Caption: Nurse Julia Anastacia Ernesto serves as youth-friendly services focal point at Mocuba secondary school. Photo by: Luis Carriere
The health corner has proven to be a valuable tool for connecting adolescents and youth to health services. Last year, during the June‒November semester, 1,031 students (742 girls, 289 boys) were seen by a health provider at the health corner.
According to Julia, girls generally visit the school health corner to learn about preventing pregnancies and different contraceptive methods. Some ask about safe abortion, and others want to know about their HIV status. Male students usually approach the health corner for condoms and their concerns related to starting sexual relations, testing for STIs and HIV, and circumcision. She also adds that health corners prevent school absenteeism.
Antonio Zeca, health focal point at Mocuba secondary school, agrees with Julia, when he says “I think that these services are good. They have reduced pregnancies in school, supported girls’ continuation in school, improved girls’ information for menstrual management […] There are more students that seek [youth-friendly services] at the [health facility] because they are referred from the school. Adolescent pregnancy is still a serious problem, and many girls do not finish school because of it. These visits help address that.”
Caption: Antonio Zeca, health focal point at Mocuba secondary school. Photo by: Luis Carriere
Mercia,16, and Pedro,17, students at Mocuba secondary school, consider the health corner a valuable resource. “I like it when the provider comes to the school corner, says Mercia, “because it is easier to contact her about some questions that came up to me. If I did not have the school corner, I could go to the [health facility], but I would not always go there. The school corner makes it easier. [For] any doubt that I have, I do not need to leave the school—I already have a nurse here to clarify. I feel understood by the nurse in the corner, because she explains well and is friendly.”
Pedro, a 17-year-old student is also happy with having a health corner present! “I liked how the nurse explained and responded to my doubts, and I also liked [the talk she gave to the students]. Here inside the school, I receive counseling, and we also have access to condoms to prevent pregnancy.”
Want to learn more about Pathfinder’s work with young people? Next month, join us on Tuesday, September 24th for our webinar Supporting the Next Generation of Young Leaders: Multi-Country Approaches to Youth Programming!
