Adolescents, especially girls, must have opportunities to empower themselves so they can speak up for their rights and develop the self-confidence and autonomy needed to take control of their lives and bodies. Significant inequities based on gender, age, geographic location, ethnicity and income persist for many Peruvian adolescents.
Indigenous adolescent females living in a rural area are most likely to be impacted with various conditions of exclusion. UNICEF is therefore supporting the development of protective and healthy environments for adolescents— particularly adolescent girls—including at schools.
The Adolescent Girls’ Health and Protection project will contribute to guaranteeing the rights of indigenous and rural adolescents, especially girls, and respond to their needs by preventing pregnancy, addressing mental health concerns and providing a protective environment from violence by providing quality, gender-sensitive, and culturally adapted health, education and protection services.
How Zonta helps
From 2020-2022, Zonta International contributed US$1,000,000 to UNICEF USA for the project. For the next two years, Zonta has committed US$750,000 to improve the capacity of services to respond to the health needs of adolescents, in particular adolescent girls, in a timely manner and prevent all forms of violence in schools and other services in Ucayali, Loreto, Huancavelica and Northern Lima. The project is expected to reach 50,364 adolescents (24,829 girls) in these four regions. The program aims to achieve two primary outcomes:
- Health sector provides quality and comprehensive adolescent care with an emphasis on strengthening resilience and violence prevention and develops pilot program to support adolescent parents and prevent a second pregnancy.
- Protection and education sectors have improved their abilities to promote health and prevent violence in schools.
Expected outcomes
- Health services are strengthened to provide comprehensive, culturally relevant and gender-sensitive health care for adolescents, with an emphasis on addressing their mental health and preventing violence.
- Adolescent parenting intervention is piloted to inform the development of public policies and programs.
- Cross-sectoral, gender-sensitive and culturally relevant strategies implemented and evaluated to promote health and prevent and address all types of violence in schools.
- 160 health personnel are trained in strengthening resilience and violence prevention guidelines and protocols.
- 12 schools (benefiting nearly 6,000 students) will have institutionalized health promotion activities that promote healthy lifestyles and environments.
- 30 schools will implement the School Violence Model.
- 10 schools will implement school program to promote the safe and responsible use of information and communications technology.
Read a detailed project description to find out more about this exciting partnership between Zonta International and UNICEF USA.