YETZ Partners Girls Spotlight in the fight for ‘an empowered girl child’ in Sexual and Reproductive Health
Every Last Friday of the month, Young Entrepreneurs Trust Zimbabwe (YETZ) and Girls Spotlight hold a 48 minutes edutainment show targeting girls in Mutare Urban. Such was the event held on 27 January 2023. The show featured experts, girls as the live audience of 20 girls and a local guest DJ (on other days it can be Musicians, Poets and Dance crews). The show was hosted by Lavender Mudiwa (YETZ project Director) and Sibongile Sithole (Girls Spotlight Executive Director) who have stage chemistry that incorporates humour that blended well with the target audience as well as the general public.
There were trained experts from National Aids Council (NAC) and peer counsellors from Peer Networking who will tackle topic(s) of discussions on -Equipping girls well versed with Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights issues in an attempt to clear the myths and misconceptions fed to the target group as well as the general public. The core intent of the program is to empower girls, on menstrual hygiene, reduce drug and alcohol abuse, STI and HIV infections, depression, anxiety, teenage pregnancy and abortion among girls to zero percentage and further instill a positive thinking.
Zimbabwe’s demographic health data reveals that nearly 40% of girls and 24% of boys are sexually active before they reach the age of 18. Despite this reality, findings from our meetings illustrated a disturbing context of isolation from sexual and reproductive health services and information that adolescent girls face in Zimbabwe. Almost all adolescent girls who spoke to Girls Spotlight demonstrated deeply concerning knowledge gaps regarding how to protect themselves from unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
Whilst Girls Spotlight is a community-based organization, formed in 2022 that seeks to promote the wellbeing of girls both in urban and grassroots levels through initiatives such as women empowerment, life skills education, mentorship programs, Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) education as well as providing menstrual hygiene education. YETZ has a focus on using social entrepreneurship through the use of entrepreneurial principles to promote the sustainable and innovative use of human, fiscal, and technological resources for social good. In the context of sexual health, social entrepreneurship focuses on developing novel, sustainable, community-responsive sexual health services. Adding on to the Girls Spotlight Show, the organization, in collaboration with YETZ is conducting re-usable sanitary pads training for unemployed girls in Mutare. Lack of access to sanitary pads has contributed greatly to the disempowerment and disgrace of many young girls who are often unfairly subjected to judgment by a society that perceives menstruation as a socially undignified act.
