Project in preparation 2018 : Preventing teen pregnancy

We submitted this project to RAJA Foundation in early 2017 ; unfortunately, we were not selected. We are in the process of researching other funding sponsors. If you’re interested or have ideas, contact us.

Project Context and Objectives

In Togo, girls’ education faces the challenge of teen pregnancy. Statistics reveal that 17.3% of pregnancies are at early ages, with 7.3% of young mothers not having reached the age of 18. During the 2012-2013 school year, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education recorded nearly 7,000 teen pregnancies.
In West Africa, only 13% of women use contraception. Young women who experience unwanted pregnancy are usually required to abandon their studies. In the worst cases, these pregnancies can cause disability or loss of the young woman’s life, often caused by abortions conducted in unsafe conditions.
The field of education thus has a huge responsibility to provide education on sexuality, including preventing pregrancy, especially due to the fact that parents are often illiterate and find the subject of pregnancy to be taboo. The Yanfouom School doesn’t escape this phenomenon, which authorities see as a scourge.
Faced with this challenge, our nonprofit wishes to support Martine Sinandja, the school principal, to keep girls in the school system for as long as possible. Our project’s objective, to be carried out over three years, is to research the causes and consequences of teen pregnancy as well as find approaches to solving this problem. We already constructed a clinic at Yanfouom School as part of this project.

Planned Activities

To have a meaningful impact, our project is slated to last three years. The objective is to reinforce and develop actions already in place at the school, which had a population of 871 students at the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year.
We have planned for monthly visits from a midwife to three groups of age, including educational films and discussion with the students. These visits aim to influence the prevention of teen pregnancy and reduce marriages before the age of 18, provide contraceptive education to fight AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. They will also give young women guidance on avoiding unwanted sexual contact, establishing a dialogue with boys regarding sexual violence as well as the risks of abortion.

A second midwife will be present weekly for individual sessions at the clinic which was built in 2016, providing education and free condoms (the latter of which available at the clinic on an ongoing basis). We also recommend providing contraceptive kits to young women based on the model of Sayana Press : a contraceptive given by injection that lasts for 13 weeks.

Project Summary

Beneficiaries
The public target is students ages 12 to 20, in total, 430 students. The 441 boys will also be involved in theoretical and educational visits from midwifes ; they will have free access to condoms at the clinic. More broadly, the project addresses the entire school community : students, teachers and staff.

Project Duration : 2017-2020

Project Budget :
Total amount : 8,000€
Amount of Grant Sought : 6,000€ (75% of total budget)
Co-financing requested or obtained to date :
• Yanfouom School, Togo : participation requested : 500€
• Yanfouom Nonprofit in France : grant obtained : 1500€

Translation via GlobalGiving TIME : Thanks you to Amelia B.