Combined approach reduces HIV among young women
By autumn 2018 we aim to have reduced the number of HIV infections among girls and young women in rural Kenya and Tanzania by 40%. In order to reach our goal we have received an amazing amount of the Dream Innovation Fund so that we can roll out our combined approach together with our partners Agrics, Tanzania Red Cross Society, OGRA Foundation and a selection of CBO's (Community Based Organizations).
In Siaya, a county in West Kenya, and Kahama, a district in the northern part of Tanzania, ICS and her partners will train and support CBO's in HIV prevention. CBO's are prominent actors in local communities and the ideal spider in the web to help fight HIV. With the right capacity and tools these CBO's can play an important role in effectively and sustainably reducing this terrible virus.
Within this combined approach ICS takes the strenghtening of farming families into account, in both social and financial ways. With our method Skilful Parenting ICS supports parents in raising children and by doing so improves family relations. This benefits to effective sex education, equality between men and women and a reduction of violence against women and children. Agrics, our social enterprise that offer farmers seeds and fertilizer on credit, increases the harvests of poor smallholder farmers significantly and tackles poverty this way. Poverty and an unbalanced diet are known as risk factors when it comes to contracting HIV and the fast development from HIV to Aids. Tanzania Red Cross Society, our partner in Tanzania, and OGRA Foundation in Kenya are experts on sexual and reproductive health and rights and HIV/Aids. Together we will take care that by autumn 2018 the number of HIV infections in this area is been reduced by at least 40%.
The Dream Innovation Fund supports 56 organisations that all work on the reduction of HIV among girls and young women in African countries. Would you like to read more on the Dreams Innovation Challenge? Take a look at www.dreamschallenge.org
