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2 May 2019 | |
What we do |
In South Africa girls and young women aged 15 to 24 are increasingly at risk of HIV infection. More than 2 000 girls contract HIV every week, with girls being four times more likely to contract HIV than their male counterparts. In MADaboutART's South African home town Knysna, around one in four young women attending antenatal services test HIV-positive
In South Africa, many cultural, behavioural and social practices limit hopes and aspirations for girls and lead to increasing vulnerability to HIV infection from early adolescence including:
• low self-esteem, peer pressure and a sense of wanting to belong, which affect young people’s decision-making capacity
• girls and young women tolerate risk and become involved in multiple and concurrent partnerships, use intoxicating substances and find themselves victims of gender-based violence
• usual for girls to be sexually active by age 11, risking infections and pregnancy as most debut without protection
• inter-generational, transactional relationships driven by need (poverty) and consumerism (desire) are tolerated and frequently encouraged by peers and family
'Taking back the Power' creates a safe space for girls to explore sexual identity and risk-taking and identify ways to reduce vulnerability to HIV. The project is linked to MADaboutART’s social enterprise and under-pinned by a belief that young women have greater social and sexual choice when they are economically independentHaving fun learning runs through all we do at MADaboutART More...
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