RCA 07 – MAKING THE DREAMS OF WOMEN AND GIRLS COME TRUE
Project Location
This project is carried out on the outskirts of Bangui and precisely in the district of Bimbo where there is the parish of St. Anthony of Padova and where the Comboni Missionary Sisters live. Over the years the population has increased a lot as many people have left their villages to join their family in the capital city.
School pregnancies pose a real danger to the future of girls in the Central African Republic. It is a "scourge" present in all regions of the country and especially in primary and secondary schools. According to statistics, at 16 more than one in ten girls (12%) has already had at least one child. This jeopardizes the educational and professional prospects of these young girls who are often forced to drop out of school.
This situation is due to various causes: lack of information on the consequences of risky behavior, absence of reference points, misuse of digital technologies, in particular social networks, extreme poverty, lack of communication between parents and children in matters of health, sexuality and reproduction and, finally, absence of a real sex education program in schools. The consequence of all this is the increase in cases of early school leaving linked to youth pregnancies.
This situation helps to keep girls and women in general in a lower status than men and does not lift them out of poverty. This is a huge loss of potential for the development of families, communities and the country.
Project description
This project aims to educate vulnerable adolescent girls upstream to help them, through training, prevent early pregnancies so that they can focus on pursuing their studies and achieving their dreams. In addition, the project aims to offer illiterate women the opportunity to learn to read and write and to acquire the holistic training necessary to improve their living conditions.
For this reason, a sex education course will be organized for about 50 girls (aged 11 to 15) in order to inform, educate and communicate with them on topics such as: sexual and reproductive health and behavior change. Parents will also be involved in order to raise awareness and inform them about the risks of early pregnancies. In addition, for 30 women who had to leave school due to pregnancy at the time, a literacy, entrepreneurship and health education course will be organized in order to make them able to improve their living conditions.
Objectives
- Prevent early pregnancies among adolescent girls, aged between 11 and 15 years, within the Parish of St. Anthony of Padova, through a sex education program
- Raising awareness among parents and informing them about the risks of early pregnancy
- Teaching art, culture, dance and sports to girls to keep them busy in their free time
- Organize literacy courses for women.
Beneficiaries
Direct: 50 girls between 11 and 15 years old; 30 women
Indirect: families
Referent sister of the project: Sr. Élisée Abukwein
Project's costs