How HJFMRI Tanzania 178m/- equipment address challenges of adolescent girls in Kyela

MBEYA: THE HJF Medical Research International (HJFMRI) over the weekend donated various economic empowerment equipment worth 178m/- to adolescents and young girls in Kyela District, Mbeya Region as part of economic strengthening initiatives to empower them through Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe (DREAMS) project. Right!

The DREAMS beneficiaries, who are adolescents and young girls, are meant to divert them from engaging in risk behaviours that may result from contacting HIV as the country moves toward an HIV/AIDS free generation.

Speaking during the official handover, the Rungwe District Commissioner Jaffar Haniu, while representing the Minister of State, in the Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, Parliamentary Affairs & Coordination) Jenista Mhagama, who is also the area Member of Parliament, said such mobilisation will help to build financial independence of many adolescent girls and young women in Kyela to avert them from engaging in risk of getting HIV.

“I am happy to have handed over more than 120 industrial sewing and shoe-making machines worth more than 178m/- that will help our girls to sew clothes and other items, as part of their income-generating activities and in turn also provide them with financial independence,” he pointed out.

In his quick elaboration, he noted that it’s a programme that provides adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) aged 15-24 years old with comprehensive evidence-based interventions and services to reduce HIV risk from sexual partners, strengthen families and mobilise communities for change.

With support from the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), through the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) of the US Department of Defence, HJFMRI in Tanzania provides AGYW in the DREAMS programme with economic strengthening and income-generating opportunities, mentorship, and coaching to the DREAMS beneficiaries in the Mbeya Region to support them reach their goals through economic dependence.

Earlier highlighting the programme objective, HJFMRI Executive Director Sally Talike Chalamila, said the implementation of the interventions under the DREAMS initiatives mainly facilitates training on behaviour change communication, which focuses on safe sex practices, and the provision of HIV testing, condoms, family planning, and usage of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) including genderbased violence among these age group as we move toward an HIV/AIDS free generation in Tanzania.

“This support is ideal for this age group as statistics indicate that many adolescent girls and young women are at high risk of contracting HIV and other STIs due to early sexual debut, engaging in age-disparate relationships that are associated with inconsistent condom use, and transactional sex.

But also financial insecurity and gender inequalities cause them to have minimal agency to negotiate sex and condom use to maintain relationship security and avoid violence from their sexual partners,” Chalamila added.

The HIV Prevention Advisor from WRAIR Dr Alick Kayange reiterated the US Government’s commitment to Tanzania and that the US Government will always work closely with the Government of Tanzania to ensure quality and effective implementation of PEPFAR HIV care and treatment interventions in the southern highlands’ regions. Since the launch of the DREAMS programme under HJFMRI in 2016, it has managed to reach over 130,000 beneficiaries in the southern highlands with various HIV interventions.

The programme equaly, offers various methods of family planning and teaches girls various entrepreneurial skills. Focus areas include electronic technician training, tailoring, hairdressing, soap making, shoemaking tie-dyeing, Cocoa product processing, and many more.

Beyond learning entrepreneurial skills, the AGYWs participate in money-saving and economic strengthening groups.

Additionally, over 3,000 AGYW have been provided with Community Health Insurance Fund (CHIF) cards. Giving her testimony on behalf of other DREAMS beneficiaries on how the programme has transformed her life, Dorcas Binala says at the age of 16 after her further abandoned them she had to take care of her sick mother when all are brothers were trapped in alcoholic and drug abuse.

With no other option, transactional sext was the only solution to support her mother and her two younger sisters.

But things turned from bad to worse when she got pregnant and the further of her baby refused responsibilities.

“It was like I was in hell, and because I dropped out of school, nobody wanted to support me. Thanks to the DREAMS ambassador who enrolled me in the programme. Today I am empowered with vocational skills and other self-awareness trainings on HIV and gender Violence. Through various economic generating activities under the DREAMS programme, today I am a breadwinner in my family,” she said.