Help rural young women and girls to access essential health services

Sheila was 11 years when she first got her period. Terrified by the sight of blood, she rushed to her mother, who gave her an old cloth to manage the bleeding, made her a makeshift bed in the backyard and instructed her to stay away from the kitchen. “Periods are a nightmare. I don’t know why they happen, but I’m treated like an outcast – I eat alone, sleep outside the house, and wear the same clothes five days.”

While a natural biological process, menstruation is determined by socio-cultural norms. Due to lack of information, this and many similar experiences, instill a sense of shame in young women for matters related to their bodies and health. Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) therefore forever remains shrouded in shame, silence and misconceptions. This leads to huge gaps in fundamental knowledge of puberty, sexuality, contraception, and services – our research studies show that only 20% of young women are aware of modern contraceptive methods; 57% follow unhygienic menstrual protection practices; 5% can visit friends/relatives unescorted. Therefore, they experience early health challenges – inadequate menstrual hygiene, reproductive tract and sexually transmitted infections, early and unintended pregnancies – negatively impacting all aspects of their lives, including education and marriage.

We want to end the suffering that Sheila and millions like her experience. And we are working towards it through focused programs that address the root cause of issues. Our interventions are holistic – we empower young women and girls with the right SRH information and enable decision making, sensitize important influencers (like parents, partners and community elders) to create a supportive environment; and strengthen service availability for women and girls in rural India.

 A crucial part of our approach is the creation and mentoring of youth leaders – these are young women from the communities, who we train and mentor to spearhead the program in their local communities. Guided by us, these youth leaders, conduct community and school-level meetings to improve knowledge on SRH, dispel myths and misinformation, and build linkages with government run facilities. Based on the needs of young women, the youth leaders also accompany them to government-run health facilities to ensure that they receive respectful and non-judgmental services and counseling. To complement these efforts, we conduct sensitization workshops for doctors and support staff posted in these government-run facilities to ensure the availability of safe and respectful SRH services to young women and girls.  

We are working to enable rural young women and girls to be more informed and empowered, to access the essential health care they need, and to lead healthy and more fulfilling lives.

Our youth leaders in four states have reached over 350,000 rural young women and girls and enabled positive behavior change. Results of our community evaluation show that – young women and girls exposed to our programs are more aware of SRH (71% had basic SRH knowledge); they have better self-efficacy (16% increase in agency score, implying improved negotiation and decision-making for SRH) and they demonstrate better SRH behaviors and practices (49% use sanitary napkins; government facility records show a three-fold increase in SRH services by young women). Working in collaboration with the government makes our model cost-effective. Your contribution will be directly utilized in project implementation – it will help to financially sustain the network of youth leaders to continue sensitization efforts aimed at disrupting regressive social practices and facilitate access to essential health services for young women. With your help, our youth leaders will reach more young women and girls in remote villages of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal, to improve their overall well-being, health, and lives.