Stepping up! … the journey is on course.

Towards the end of March 2022, we at ACLAD, together with our partner Gynocare Women’s and Fistula Hospital and other stakeholders from the county government of Kakamega, converged to have a three-day curriculum writing workshop under the guidance of one curriculum writing expert. The aim of this workshop was to look deeply and analyse the information gathered by our field teams in both Kakamega and Uasin Gishu counties through focus group discussions and barrier analysis and come up with a working draft of the Stepping Up! Curriculum that will be implemented in both counties.

Why another curriculum you may ask… well, we identified an issue or problem that needed to be addressed. Girls and young women in western Kenya were found to become pregnant at times not of their choosing, leading to detrimental social, emotional, and physical outcomes for both mother and child. Stepping Up! comes in to address the current gaps in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) programs among youth by engaging parents and young people to address some of the most critical barriers women experience, namely: male-dominated sexual decision-making, limited communication about SRH between intimate partners and with parents, and stigma related to sexuality and early pregnancy.

We have accomplished the first three steps of the above model, as we applied various information gathering techniques since September 2021 to February 2022. These include Landscape Analysis, focus group discussions with various stakeholders including adolescents, parents, religious leaders, teachers and healthcare workers, and a rapid assessment known as Barrier Analysis. From these, several emerging issues were noted, including acknowledgement that teenage pregnancies are indeed a problem (as noted by both the youth and adults engaged in the surveys), that there is a communication breakdown between youth peers and also between the youth and their parents/adults, and that there is stigmatization of young people -those pregnant and those seeking family planning.

By adapting the Stepping Stones and Families Matter! curricula focusing on the topic of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH), namely preventing unintended pregnancies, Stepping Up! hopes to address cultural, religious, and gender norms related to sexual and reproductive health in western Kenya. In addition, the expected outcomes of the Stepping Up! curricula are:

• Improved sexual and reproductive health knowledge, attitudes, and skills among youth.
• Improved attitudes about family planning methods among youth and their parents.
• Reduce stigma related to sexual and reproductive health among youth and their parents and improve communication skills between young women and their intimate partners and their parents.
• Reduced negative gender stereotypes that put young women at risk of early pregnancy, and reduced stigma surrounding young women who find themselves in challenging early pregnancy situations.

Stepping Up! Building stronger relationships among youth and parents to increase family planning use in Western Kenya.

Catherine Muteithia

ACLAD Research and Communications Assistant