Our project is inspired by the desire for…
Families who offer their children a promising childhood independently, without having to rely on donation,
Women and girls who shape their future in a self-determined way, free of stigmatization and
Children who grow up in a healthy living environment and already learn about equal rights at school.
A sustainable improvement of the living conditions goes hand in hand with responsibility and self-reflection. Every day, our team fights for equal rights, questions outdated role models and opens up access to sexual protection and reproductive health services. We bring various opinions to one table and create a change that begins in the village and will extend into politics.
Task 1:
Nurses and teachers have a major influence on the acceptance of and access to reproductive health services. We organize regular training sessions to improve understanding and set an emphasis on the importance of the topic. Nurses should be able to give people in need comprehensive and useful advice. By emphasizing the importance of family planning for the development of their communities, we are putting our efforts into providing a treatment that will be free of charge and without stigmatization.
In order to dispel circulating myths, we involve teachers who integrate important issues such as contraception, menstruation and gender equality into their teaching. Each one of the 27 schools in our project region has a teacher of trust to whom young people can turn to if there are any unanswered questions regarding their sexuality.
Task 2:
With knowledge comes change. Driven by our mission, our team visits the project regions every day. We encourage families to think about whether they can meet the needs of another child, and we advocate for gender equality and the free decision to use contraception. Our various teams are specially trained to advise and counsel young people, adults, families and men. They themselves are part of the community and thanks to the trust they have built up over the years, can also address culturally difficult issues.
Village elders and religious leaders influence the opinion of their community immensely. Therefore, we regularly organize discussion forums and an open dialogue. Even though opinions are often far apart, we are able to win more and more people as multipliers of our immensely important message.
Knowledge does not have to be boring. With participatory educative theater performances in schools and on market days in communities, an ensemble of actors conveys information on reproductive rights and gender equality in an exciting, entertaining and memorable way.
Our radio shows with specially composed soundtracks and live interviews provide information nationwide, while the hotline to ask live questions is always very busy.
Task 3:
In theory, reproductive services, such as the supply of contraceptives and antenatal care in health centers should be free of charge. However, as the health budget in Kenya is always under financed and there are not enough trained health workers, access is difficult or even impossible to many. Our team helps in five health centers, where the appropriate contraceptive method can be selected and used after detailed consultation.
Because of the stigmatization, young people are reluctant to go to health centers when contraceptives and sexually transmitted diseases are on the agenda. In our two youth-friendly centers, we have created a place where young people are anonymously counselled by nurses about sexuality, contraception and sexually transmitted diseases. The young people also receive treatment and contraceptives here free of charge.
New in 2020:
We are working towards a long-term and sustainable improvement and are therefore also politically active. Through citizen participation, we want to put pressure on politicians to improve the government’s commitment to reproductive rights.
We train action groups consisting of community members, bring them together with local politicians and write a position paper with our demands. In the next step, we carry out a study and a signature campaign that shows the current status of reproductive rights in the region and thus provide the necessary information for the position paper. In a conference we present the results and give the action groups the necessary stage to present their demands to local politicians and decision makers and be able to have a proper discussion about it.
With 100 euros, five women can use contraception for a year and make self-determined decisions about their bodies and their future
Please help us to give people the opportunity to practise family planning. Often it is not the will to use contraception that is lacking, but simply the income, which is just enough to provide for the basic needs of the family. Only 20 euros can provide contraception for a whole year for one person. An amount that is not much for most of us in this country, but which can have a huge impact on the entire life of a family as well as future generations in Kenya.
The project is co-funded by the Austrian Development Agency and the County of Lower Austria.
