Wezesha Vijana Program (WVP)
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(Wezesha Vijana is Swahili for Empowering Ourselves)
Wezesha Vijana Program is a unique, multi-faceted life skills program. Wezesha Vijana’s approach to personal, social, economic, and health skills development is based on a human (woman) centered design. This rights-based program emphasizes the active participation of adolescent girls and young women in defining their own needs and leading solutions to the issues that affect their lives.
CHALLENGES GIRLS FACE IN EAST AFRICA
Understanding relevant cultural, social, and health factors are critical to addressing girls’ education and the “keeping girls in school” gap. Girls struggle to develop essential life skills due to the systemic issues of gender-based violence, early marriage, lack of education and limited opportunity that deeply affect rural communities.
16.7 MILLION GIRLS
are our of school in sub-Saharan Africa (UNESCO)
37% OF YOUNG WOMEN
(20-24) were married before the age of 18 (sub-Saharan Africa – UNWomen)
MORE THAN HALF
56% of urban girls and women live in slum conditions (sub-Saharan Africa – UNWomen)
WHAT IS THE WEZESHA VIJANA PROGRAM?
Through “safe spaces” and learning about money and power dynamics, girls support each other and educate their peers using activities that they have developed. By treating girls as active participants rather than passive beneficiaries, Wezesha Vijana Program empowers young women to take control of their futures and make a positive impact in their communities.
WHO IS THE
PROGRAM FOR?
Girls Showing Their New Learning and Hygiene Products
WVP focuses on the upper-primary level adolescents (ages 11-14) when girls are more at-risk for dropping out.
WVP includes boys as peer-allies (33% of students) who learn about the challenges girls face and how to best support them as they overcome these challenges.
PROGRAM
TOPICS
Students at a Girls Empowerment and Rights Summit
Through 16 sessions, studenst gain personal, human, and social assets.
PERSONAL ASSETS: Dream mapping, goal setting, and confidence building.
HUMAN ASSETS: Puberty, hygiene, children’s rights, gender-based violence, teen pregnancy, and HIV awareness.
SOCIAL ASSETS: Networking, financial literacy, seeking help, and finding support.
WHAT MAKES THE PROGRAM UNIQUE?
Students Holding a Program Workbook
Wezesha Vijana Program empowers youth to take control of their futures and make a positive impact in their communities using the tools they have around them.
The program includes community support, parental engagement, peer mentoring, and active engagement of boys.
EVIDENCE-BASED RESULTS
90%
Of male participants would stand for their sisters in need (2022)
405
Girls graduated secondary school (kenya & Tanzania, 2021)
53%
Improvement in parents engaging in their children’s education (2022)
