Evaluation of a Savings and Micro-Credit Program for Vulnerable Youth Women in Nairobi

This document presents Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY) and it's four-year initiative undertaken by the Population Council and K-Rep Development Agency (KDA). The overall aim of the project was to reduce adolescents' vulnerabilities to adverse social and reproductive health outcomes by improving their livelihoods options. The project targeted out-of-school adolescent girls and young women aged 16 to 22 residing in low income and slum areas of Nairobi. TRY used a modified group-based micro-finance model to extend integrated savings, credit, business support and mentoring to out-of-school adolescents and young women

Evaluation of a savings and micro-credit program for vulnerable young women in Nairobi

Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY) was a four-year initiative undertaken by the Population Council and K-Rep Development Agency to reduce adolescents’ vulnerabilities to adverse social and reproductive health outcomes by improving livelihoods options. The project targeted out-of-school adolescent girls and young women aged 16–22 residing in low-income and slum areas of Nairobi. TRY used a modified group-based micro-finance model to extend integrated savings, credit, business support, and mentoring to out-of-school adolescents and young women. A longitudinal study of participants was conducted with a matched comparison group identified through cross-sectional community-based studies, undertaken at baseline and endline to enable an assessment of changes associated with the project. This report states that 326 participants and their controls were interviewed at baseline and 222 pairs were interviewed at endline. The results suggest that rigorous micro-finance models may be appropriate for a subset of girls, especially those who are older and less vulnerable. The impact on noneconomic indicators is less clear. Additional experimentation and adaptation is required to develop livelihoods models that acknowledge and respond to the particular situation of adolescent girls

Using Developmental Frameworks to Implement Focus Groups in School-Aged Children

This poster describes the use of virtual focus groups with school-aged children in the development of a pediatric wellbeing picture scale to screen for mental health and wellbeing. Children\u27s opinions, creative ideas, and insights allow acquisition of new data and knowledge, but unfortunately, are frequently overlooked. When using developmentally-based principles, focus groups have been shown to be a successful and reliable method for collecting data from this age group and a novel way to better understand the child’s interactions and experiences. Focus groups have a number of advantages, allowing for in-depth exploration of discussion by the participants. Students in Nursing 499 conducted developmentally-based focus groups with children grades 3-5 to develop the Pediatric Well Being Picture Scale. Basing focus groups on theoretical frameworks of Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg creates an environment conducive to open discussion and expression of children’s ideas. These focus groups give children the opportunity to connect to one another and feel more comfortable in talking about items about emotional wellbeing. This allowed the researcher to gain an understanding of the children’s perspective for the items on the wellbeing scale. Limitations noted due to the virtual environment included maintaining the child’s attention, adequacy of technology, and assuring that each child had the opportunity to equally participate. Benefits include more openness and candor due a sense of anonymity from not being in the same location.https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2022/1066/thumbnail.jp

Healing wounds, instilling hope: The Tanzanian partnership against obstetric fistula

This edition of Quality/Calidad/Qualité describes a partnership formed to combat obstetric fistula in Tanzania. The Bugando Medical Center, the Women’s Dignity Project, the Tanzania Midwives Association, and the government cooperated on an extensive program for surgical repair, prevention, and policy research and activities. Lessons learned: 1) Fistula programs need to address social as well as medical issues. 2) Most repairs are successful, making an enormous difference in women’s lives. 3) Relatively little funding is necessary to start up a fistula program. 4) Fistula programs are vehicles for broader conversations about gender and poverty

Kutibu majeraha, kutia matumaini: Ushirikiano wa watanzania dhidi ya fistula obstetrikia

This edition of Quality/Calidad/Qualité describes a partnership formed to combat obstetric fistula in Tanzania. The Bugando Medical Center, the Women’s Dignity Project, the Tanzania Midwives Association, and the government cooperated on an extensive program for surgical repair, prevention, and policy research and activities. Lessons learned: 1) Fistula programs need to address social as well as medical issues. 2) Most repairs are successful, making an enormous difference in women’s lives. 3) Relatively little funding is necessary to start up a fistula program. 4) Fistula programs are vehicles for broader conversations about gender and poverty

Girls\u27 adolescence in Burkina Faso: A pivot point for social change

As closer attention is paid to the lives of adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa, girls are found to be clearly disadvantaged, compared with their male counterparts. Burkinabé girls are frequently married at a young age, and more than one-third of married girls find themselves in polygamous unions as second or third wives, married to much older men. Understanding and recognizing girls’ realities is an important first step in planning appropriate and meaningful interventions for them. Girls who are unmarried, “promised,” engaged, or married face different constraints and merit different program approaches. This report by the Population Council aims to fill gaps in our knowledge regarding adolescent Burkinabé girls so as better serve the needs of this most vulnerable population

Married adolescents: An overview

The nascent work reviewed in this compendium indicates that married girls experience significant social isolation and limited autonomy. Across the studies examined, on indicators of mobility, exposure to media, and social networks, married girls are consistently disadvantaged compared to their unmarried peers. Similarly, across studies, on most of the domains explored here (mobility, decision-making, control over economic resources, and possibly gender-based violence), married girls tend to be less empowered and more isolated than slightly older married females. There may also be health issues associated with marriage during adolescence. Married girls are frequently at a disadvantage in terms of reproductive health information—particularly regarding STIs and HIV. First-time mothers, many of whom are adolescents, by virtue of their parity may have distinct maternal health needs and risks. Finally, early marriage potentially plays a role in exposing girls and young women to severe reproductive health risks, including HIV. Many of these elevated health risks may be largely, though not exclusively, derivative of their social vulnerability

A world apart: The disadvantage and social isolation of married adolescent girls

This brief is based on a paper prepared for the WHO/UNFPA/Population Council Technical Consultation on Married Adolescents, held in Geneva, Switzerland, December 9–12, 2003. The consultation brought together experts from the United Nations, donors, and nongovernmental agencies to consider the evidence regarding married adolescent girls’ reproductive health, vulnerability to HIV infection, social and economic disadvantage, and rights. The relationships to major policy initiatives—including safe motherhood, HIV, adolescent sexual and reproductive health, and reproductive rights—were explored, and emerging findings from the still relatively rare programs that are directed at this population were discussed. Despite the program attention and funding that have been devoted to adolescents, early marriage and married adolescents have fallen largely outside of the field’s concern. Comprising the majority of sexually active adolescent girls in developing countries, this large and vulnerable subpopulation has received neither program and policy consideration in the adolescent sexual and reproductive health field, nor special attention from reproductive health and development programs for adult women. While adolescent girls, irrespective of marital status, are vulnerable in many settings and deserve program, policy, and resource support, the purpose of this brief is to describe the distinctive and often disadvantaged situations of married girls and to propose possible future policy and program options