ILO team up with NGO to reduce HIV vulnerability among Kyela girls

Kyela. International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Tanzania has teamed up with Kiwohede, a non governmental organisation in Kyela sub-granted by Sauti Project to fight against HIV/Aids through scaling up evidence-based economic strengthening interventions to vulnerable adolescent girls and young women as a way of accelerating efforts to achieve an HIV/Aids-free generation.

Speaking during a joint visit in Kyela by ILO, Sauti Project and Tacaids officials to visit ILO loan beneficiaries, ILO HIV/Aids National Project Coordinator Getrude Sima said she was pleased to see that the Sauti Project as part of HIV/Aids interventions had significantly reduced risk behaviour among Kyela girls.

“We were approached by a Sauti team to support part of their intervention on HIV/Aids to vulnerable adolescent girls and young women in Kyela,” she noted.

“We provided Sh65.7million as a loan and now we have seen the impact as manygirls are busy doing business in saloons, cafés, M-Pesa and pharmacies,” she added.

Earlier, giving the scope of the partnership in the district, Sauti Project Social and Economic Empowerment Specialist Lilian Kisanga said the programme had proved to be positive for HIV/Aidsprevention as most of the girls had become focused on income generating activities, which freed them from engaging in high risk behaviour.

“There is great transformation from this type of intervention and thanks to ILO supportin Kyela, 12 groups of vulnerable girls have accessed loans amounting Sh29.5 million, which was disbursed in three phases since February this year," she said.

Ms Kisanga noted that as part of the DREAMS (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, HIV/Aids-free, Mentored, Safe) Initiative, earlier they mobilised girls to form WORTH+ groups and trained them in economic empowerment, gender and entrepreneurship skills.

They were also trained in how to protect themselves from high risk behaviour so that they could understand their role and accomplish their goals through identifying potential areas for income generating activities and starttheir own businesses.

“We give them room to first prepare their own business plan and identify potential areas that need improvements and we also ensure they get registered as required by laws of the land,” she explained.

Outlining how ILO came on board, Ms Kisanga said, the Sauti Project modality didn’t have enough start-up capital to fully empower the girls so they kept on generating their own money and as a result they approached ILO to support the programme with funds to be channelled through the Kyela Municipal Council as part of sustainability of the programme under the government.

Under this arrangement, it is flexible for the 280 girls trained in economic strengthening under Sauti to access loans as a group through the municipal council and later start individual businesses.

The DREAMS Initiative is an ambitious $385 million partnership to reduce HIV/Aids infection among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in HIV/Aids priority countries including Tanzania.

To date, adolescent girls and young women account for over 70 percent of new HIV/Aids infections among young people in sub-Saharan Africa, and nearly 1,000 AGYW are infected with HIV/Aids every day.

The initiatives go beyond health to address economic opportunities as a key to reaching the Sustainable Development Goal of ending HIV/Aids by 2030.

As part of the Sauti Project portfolio, the economic strengthening intervention and revolving funds support for vulnerable adolescent girls and young women (VAGYW) is implemented by Jhpiego in partnership with Pact, Engender Health and Kyela District Council with Support from ILO and USAID through the US government’s PEPFAR under the DREAMS initiatives.