A non-governmental organisation, German Foundation for World Population (DSW) has extended a helping hand to Migori youth and teenage mothers living with HIV/Aids to access better healthcare services.
DSW Project Officer Lee Oluoch, who was addressing stakeholders in reproductive health sector in Rongo Sub County said the move aims to ensure every youth, teenage mother, and discordant couple in the remote villages access their daily ARV medication.
One of the DSW main goals in East Africa is to address the youth-to-youth initiative that attempts to empower youth to play an active role in improving their sexual and reproductive health in their communities, through peer education, advocacy, and income-generating activities.
Oluoch said that the non-governmental organisation has already helped the teenagers and youths through support groups to set up table banking to fund activities that generate income to sustain their young families.
The organisation has also been helping the formal groups set up kitchen gardens to provide nutritional aspects to improve the immune system of HIV-positive individuals through a better-balanced diet.
“We have also started other income-generating ventures like giving goats and sheep to the supportive groups to give them an extra edge in income generation,” said Olouch.
He said that the support from the DSW will ensure the beneficiaries adhere to the culture of taking their medication on time and embrace table banking as a way to generate income as well as socialise by sharing ideas that can help the groups, especially the teenage mothers.
DSW has rolled out a similar project in Kilifi County to help the youth and teenage mothers accept their social life of living positively to enable them to raise a better generation.
“We will keep engaging the youth and empower them socially and economically to give them hope for living positively for a better tomorrow,” noted Olouch.
Rongo Sub-County Health Officer Ben Onuka said the project will help fight new infections acknowledging that over 50 percent of all the new HIV infections in the County are from adolescents and youths.
Migori County remains one of the top five counties in Kenya with a high HIV prevalence rate of 10.4 percent with Awendo Sub County leading among the Sub counties with new HIV infections.
Onuka said that adolescents and youths especially girls are the most vulnerable group as a result of their naivety which makes them prey to sexual advances from older men.
County statistics on adolescent pregnancies in Migori as of 2023 stood at 19 percent and according to Onuka, most teenage mothers are ushered into motherhood with no experience of how to raise a child in addition to contracting the Hiv/Aids that sometimes overwhelms them leading to emotional stress.
By Geoffrey Makokha
