Save Generations Organization provides a realistic picture of the SRHR project
Save Generations Organization in its end project evaluation phase 2, for the project on “Empowerment of adolescents and young girls in school on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights” funded by Kvinna till Kvinna with the aim to increase knowledge and information on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) to adolescents and young girls and boys in school in Kamonyi and Gasabo Districts. The organization’s management has admitted that much has been achieved through the project and there is hope that the project will continue to have a positive impact on SRHR knowledge in Rwandan Society.
This was revealed by Yvette Nyinawumuntu, Founder and Director of Save Generations Organization during a review on the SRHR 2020 project implementation.
Save Generations Organization is a Rwandan non – governmental organization whose main objective is to strive for the development of children, youth and women.
The organization has been operating in Rwanda since 2015, where it conducts programs of child protection and wellbeing, High School sponsorship program, youth and women empowerment.
The organization also focuses on educating and helping adolescents to prevent unintended pregnancies through Adolescents and youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights program
The organization is also involved in environmental conservation activities.
With the support from the Swedish organization Kvinna till Kvinna, from 2018 to 2020, Save Generations Organization has been able to implement a project to increase knowledge and accurate information on SRHR to adolescents and youth to enable them to take informed decision over their bodies and claim their SRH rights.
Ms. Nyinawumuntu explained that “during the project implementation different activities were implemented in schools in Kamonyi district and Gasabo district.”
She said that 2 schools in each district were selected and training was held on SRHR and child rights, self-confidence training, aimed at providing information on SRHR so that young girls can make informed decisions regarding their health.
“We have implemented this project in the wake of the growing cases of early pregnancies among adolescents, and often throughout the course we have found that adolescents girls and boys have insufficient information on sexual reproductive health and Rights,” she said.
“In addition to having insufficient information, there is also the problem of having false information that has led many to engage in sexual misconduct that has led to unplanned pregnancies yet they have no information on what to do when faced with such problems.” Ms. Nyinawumuntu added
She went on to explain that in addition to the lack of information, the cultural barriers are still preventing parents from talking to their children about reproductive health which means that in the family there is no information given to children while at school, SRHR information are rarely given as a lesson which is normally affecting the way it is understood among young boys and girls.
“SRHR is taught as a lesson and for that adolescent girls and boys understand it as a lesson in which he or she needs grades and yet does not use that lesson in his or her daily life.” Ms. Nyinawumuntu noted
“So, we came to the conclusion that adolescent education on SRHR is one thing, but also talking to parents, helping parents and encouraging their role in the promotion of family discussion about SRHR is important as it helps in preventing pregnancies among underage girls”
Engaging local Authorities
The project engaged local authorities to work together to prevent teenage pregnancies and to help disseminate information on reproductive health in an effort to change citizens’ misperceptions on SRHR.
According to Ms. Nyinawumuntu, there has been a demand for information on SRHR to be included in government programs at the grassroots level to be part of the public debate, which will allow adolescents to have enough information to prevent them from falling into temptations which lead unexpected pregnancies.
Engaging Religious leaders
The project also focused on engaging religious leaders because when you look at it there is a culture of religious beliefs in Rwanda so the training of religious people was aimed at urging church and religious institutions to sensitize the teenagers to avoid premature pregnancies.
“They have been trained and determined to establish a SRHR program in their religious programs,” she said.
Engaging Media in SRHR and child rights promotion through trainings
In addition to religious institutions, through this project on SRHR, journalists have been trained based on the role of the media in behavior change as well as in helping the society understand that discussions on SRHR are important hence enable them to disseminate accurate information on SRHR.
“We have trained journalists to take part in this campaign against pregnancies among adolescents by providing them with adequate and reliable sexual reproductive health information,” she said.
This also went hand in hand with advocacy on issues that may be at stake including inadequate information provided to adolescents and the family.
“Even though the COVID 19 epidemic has obliged schools to close, we have not stopped working with adolescents and young people because we had to use our best means to discuss reproductive health through radio and social media,” Ms. Nyinawumuntu said.
“It is in this context that we immediately launched a Radio program on Radio Flash FM, in a regular weekly talk show ‘TUGANIRE KU BUZIMA BW’IMYOROROKERE translated as DISCUSSING SEXUAL PRODUCTION HEALTH ’ which was aimed at continuing to provide information to adolescents and family members in general on the subject through the Media.” Ms. Nyinawumuntu explained.
Meetings and Digital advocacy and awareness on Girls Go back to school
The campaign has also been publicised by various media outlets where they provided information to raise awareness and provide adequate information on SRHR and advocacy where necessary.
Media Engagement and Girls Go back to school Advocacy and awareness Campaign
Ms. Nyinawumuntu said “After the rapid assessment on the impacts of covid19 to adolescents and youth, we assessed possible causes that would hinder teenagers to return to school, where we immediately started advocating for girls who might not be able to return to school in the face of emerging concerns aggravated by COVID 19 outbreak,”
This is in addition to the large number of children who have already indulged in hard labour such as working as maids, those who have gone into business, those who have gone into mining and other extractive activities, those who have gone to work in industry and various other activities.
“In addition, there has been a serious problem with the fact that some of the teenagers have become pregnant prematurely, and it was clear that most of them would not be able to return to school.” Ms. Nyinawumuntu noted
The study also found that some girls were already married, so increasing advocacy was important in order to take early action to prevent the possibility of failure to return to school.
The advocacy on girls go back to school aimed to engage different stakeholders in education sector, CSOs and parents in the prevention of school drop of adolescents and youth after school reopening during COVID 19.
Developing Mobile Application to provide SRHR Information
The project also featured mobile telephone technology to provide SRHR information through Mobile phones.
“This is because we have found that mobile phones are important in facilitating communication and being used to provide accurate and constructive information.” She said.
This information is obtained by dialing 845 and following the instructions given to you so that you can access the information on SRHR and there is another way you can get information on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights by dialing *845# to access information through a USSD service (Direct message).
“Teenagers and adolescents appreciated the mobile services as it helps them get the information they need”. And it’s a youth friendly service and accessible without internet.
SRHR Booklets production
The booklets were designed to help young people between the ages of 10 and 12 and other adolescents between the ages of 13 and 19, which contain sexual reproductive Health information related to each age group and thus prevent them from exchanging rumors rather exchanging reliable information as they get from the developed booklets.
These books are also intended for parents because some of them have been found to have insufficient information on SRHR so they will also be helpful to them.
Nyinawumuntu added that there also booklets developed for teachers thus help them to provide SRHR lessons in a clear and concise manner.
Save Generations Organization finds that Though there is a lot that has been done by implementing the project on SRHR, where trained adolescents and youth on SRHR has increased their knowledge and information on SRHR, empowered adolescents’ girls and increased their confidence and take informed decisions over their bodies but still there is a lot to be done in keeping providing SRHR information to adolescents and youth. We need to keep addressing the barriers such as culture, social norms and belief that consider SRHR as taboo and hinder adolescents and youth to access SRHR information as their rights. The above project continues in the coming years ahead.