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Topics
- Adolescence/transitions to adulthood
- Family planning services
- Female genital mutilation/cutting
- Financial literacy/livelihoods
- HIV biomedical research
- HIV care, support, and treatment
- HIV and children
- HIV prevention
- Microbicides
- Integrating health services
- Maternal and newborn health
- New and improved reproductive technologies
- Population policy and demographic analysis
- Reproductive health biomedical research
- RTIs/STIs
- Safe abortion and postabortion care
- Sexual and gender-based violence
- Social isolation/support
- Strengthening health systems
- Urbanization, health, and the environment
- Vulnerable populations
- Countries
- Projects
Population Council Research that makes a difference
Providing needed services
to married adolescent girls
Research from the Population Council has shown that married adolescent girls in Kenya's Nyanza Province are at greater risk for spousal violence and HIV infection, compared to their unmarried, sexually active counterparts.
In this video, Council associate Chi-Chi Undie describes efforts to provide services to married girls. We are testing a two-part approach—involving both community outreach and a media campaign—for expanding married girls' access to family planning, reproductive health, and HIV services as well as services to respond to gender-based violence.
The Council, in collaboration with Kenya's Ministry of Health, has recruited and trained community health workers in Nyanza to travel door-to-door and contact married adolescent girls and their partners, distribute health information, and provide referrals to critical health services when needed. We are also collaborating with an award-winning African communication agency, Well Told Story, to produce a radio drama—Chakruok—aired on Lake Victoria Radio twice a week. The goal of the drama is to change community views about married adolescent girls and raise awareness of their health needs. Our efforts are shaping the government's community health strategy in the region, providing evidence on effective strategies for using community health workers as resources.
