Current Projects
In partnership with PS Kenya, we implement user-centric, Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (ASRHR) demand creation and service delivery targeting adolescents (15-19) years. The project is reimagining and redefining the way sexual reproductive health programs are designed and delivered for adolescents and young women. By putting adolescents at the center of conversations about their own reproductive health needs, it intends to catalyze the discussions and change perceptions around access to contraceptives by adolescents. The project integrates reproductive health and economic empowerment which is aimed at addressing dependency ratio of adolescent girls and young women and by extension saving them from engaging in risky sexual behaviors which makes them more susceptible to teenage pregnancies, HIV/AIDS and other STIs.
Through Human Centered Design Approach (HCD), the girls are offered skills training ranging from goal setting, budgeting and saving, decision making and communication and Health and nutrition after which they are taken through practical training on an area they have chosen, such as tailoring, fashion design, bakery, soap making, hairdressing among the rest. Through this, the project has been able to deliver entrepreneurial skills and contraceptive counseling sessions and services— tailored to and branded for their unique needs.
In line with KENYA ‘Vision 2030,’ the goal of the DESIP programme is to ensure that women and girls safely plan their pregnancies and improve their SRHR, particularly the young rural, and marginalized, with programme impact contributing to reduced maternal mortality, newborn, and child mortality, and increased mph in Kenya. In partnership with Population Services Kenya that focuses on private health facilities and Amref Health Africa that focuses on Public Health facilities, we implement this program through offering demand creation for contraceptive services which includes conducting health in-reaches and outreaches. We use community dialogue methodology Education Through Listening (ETL) – facilitation technique that catalyzes a participatory and productive community dialog resulting in behavior change in members of the community
Better Together (B2T) is a community led youth mentorship program supported by Global Youth Mobilization to provide mental health support to adolescent mothers who have been adversely affected by the impact of the Covid – 19 pandemics in the rural communities of Suba, Homabay County. As a community led youth initiative, it works to curb postpartum depression among adolescent mothers that is resulted by psychological, psychosocial, physical challenges within the community. The project targets 133 adolescent mothers in the peer mentorship program that is blended with group talk therapy (WhatsApp and community groups), sexual and reproductive health education and linkage to YFS, business skill training in the accelerator.
Researchers, CSOs and the government have made drastic steps to ensure HIV prevalence reduction in the country including Suba where the most of the fishing activities takes place, however, fears still arise of different practices. In the recent years a new behavior that has not been researched has cropped up along the fish landing beaches in Suba that needs keen attention from the public. The practice is locally known as “Puk Iyier” (dispose and choose). This is a new “come-we-stay” lifestyle whereby one woman can cohabit with up to five different men in a span of even three months, and a man too can get married to five different women in a span of one year. This lifestyle has increased intergenerational sex among young people and sugar mummies and sugar daddies who are fish business persons along the beaches. Widows, divorced and older women who have left their homes to shelter along the beaches with money use the power of money to influence young men to cohabit with them. As result of money, and lacking what to do with much money given, the young men in turn use the money and other material possessions to influence their female age mates in exchange of sex.
We are conducting an exploratory study understand this new phenomenon on the population that live and dwell in the fish landing beaches explore the knowledge, practice and its interconnectedness.
The study is randomized control trial (RCT) mobile phone short messaging enhanced by youth peer navigation (m-care) for ART adherence and retention promotion among adolescents. We are aiming to assess the feasibility and acceptability of implementing a peer navigated mobile based SMS tailored care platform into rural healthcare system to promote ART adherence and retention among adolescents and young adults for a 9-month pilot period.
Nurturing care is giving young children opportunities for early learning, through interactions that are responsive and emotionally supportive. Under the SMART Start Initiative, we promote nurturing care support to pregnant and breastfeeding teen mothers and caregivers through child play, Nutrition education, excusive breastfeeding education 
in rural communities of Homabay through community led peer mentorship.
In partnership with the AMREF Health under community systems strengthening (CSS) under sub theme of Community led advocacy and Research (CLAR). We implemented two community led research studies spanning from the community on assessment of youth engagement in health sector priority setting and implementation and exploration of facility based PrEP uptake among young women in Suba.
Study Titles:
1. Exploring facility based PrEP service delivery model aimed at promoting PrEP services uptake among young women in Suba Sub County.
2. Assessment of Youth Public Participation in Health Sector Priority Setting and Implementation in Suba South sub county.