PATH's Project on Married Adolescent Girls

The project activities include:

• using radio, theatre, and community leaders to raise awareness of HIV risk associated with early marriage;
• promoting couples' VCT through community promotions and transport subsidies; and
• supporting and empowering newly married adolescent girls in the early stages of marriage through community-level married girls clubs.

PATH developed radio spots that have been broadcast on Ramogi FM, a popular radio station in Nyanza. The radio spots, recorded in Dholuo, address issues related to early marriage and are geared toward different audiences. The radio spots that have been broadcast include:

1. Yudie ma ber-ber - urges young girls to look for a marriage partner who is of the same age.
2. Nyon mos, which roughly translates to "tread carefully," counsels young women not to rush into marriage and to go for VCT with their partner before becoming intimate.
3. Jagam, which means "go between" and is the term used for matchmakers, urges matchmakers to include HIV status as one of their criteria for determining good suitors.
4. In Wuon par wa, a married adolescent urges her spouse to use protection until he confirms his status through VCT if he has been unfaithful.

According to PATH, it has successfully used its Magnet Theatre approach in several projects to engage youth in discussions and problem solving on a variety of HIV/AIDS-related topics. Magnet Theatre is community theatre that typically takes place in outdoor public spaces and has a regular schedule at a fixed venue. The actors perform a drama that presents a dilemma based on community problems. The audience participates by offering suggestions to the characters as well as acting out solutions to the dilemma themselves. Magnet Theatre aims to encourage dialogue and allow the audience to discuss and test solutions to problems in order to bring about individual and community-wide change.

In Rachuonyo, theatre groups were strategically selected based on population density, accessibility, and HIV prevalence in their divisions. PATH trained members of eight theatre troupes in Magnet Theatre, HIV/AIDS, and the risks of early marriage. Since the training in November 2005, these troupes have facilitated an average of nearly 50 theatre outreach activities a month. Theatre troupes offer referrals to VCT centres near their performance sites.

PATH is working closely with a number of churches in Rachuonyo to establish married girls clubs to provide girls venues through which they can receive information, advice, and social support. The clubs are managed by a local faith-based organisation and include livelihood and mentoring opportunities with adult married women and periodic assembly of larger extended family groups including husbands and in-laws.

VCT for married couples is promoted through these clubs and the clubs offer support for those who have been tested (both HIV-positive and -negative). The clubs offer young women an opportunity to be mentored by married women on a variety of issues related to marriage.

Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS, Youth, Gender.

Prior to implementation of the project, Population Council conducted formative research to inform the project's messages and strategies for reaching married or pre-married girls and their families. The findings from this assessment were the following.

• Girls marry to solve problems without knowing their partner well.
• Girls' movement and associations are controlled after marriage.
• Married girls think they are protected from HIV.
• Wife inheritance without knowing HIV status is still prevalent.
• Fear and lack of money are major barriers to VCT uptake.
• There is a great fear in couples about testing, and disclosure is uncommon.
• There continues to be a great deal of stigma.
• Despite availability of antiretroviral therapy (ART), feelings of despair among those who are positive are common.

In collaboration with district-level Ministry of Health staff and eleven VCT centres in Rachuonyo district, PATH and Population Council worked to increase VCT uptake by offering transportation subsidies to clients who come for testing through a coupon referral system. Data analysis is currently underway, but anecdotal reports from counsellors at the VCT centres indicate there has been a significant increase in numbers of couples coming for testing since introducing the subsidies.