Safe Spaces for Girls and Young Women

Safe Spaces are mentor-led weekly meetings for groups girls and young women who are at risk of HIV infection through their circumstances or life-styles.

Their mentors are young women from the same communities as the group members. The mentors have shared the same life experiences as the girls, and their advice and support is trusted.

The group meetings allow the girls to share their experiences, talk about problems they are facing, and work out solutions together. Many of the girls will not be aware of the support servces available for them, including: education support, family planning, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), psychosocial support, and gender-based violence (GBV) support services.

Seventeen-year-old Medy says that a lot has changed in the year she has attended a Safe Space group, "I didn’t know about ASRHR [Adolescent Sexual Health and Rights]. The group has helped a lot in knowing that we should protect ourselves because boys used to trick us into having intercourse. For example, they would say that if someone who has acne, as a way of treatment you must have sex to cure it.

Medy’s group is a space for her to talk among her peers and with her mentors. These are difficult conversations to have with a parent anyway, and more so for young girls now. Medy explains that, “these days parents are so busy, they come home late and we cant have these talks with them especially about ASRHR - but because every Saturday we come to sessions it really helps us.”

Medy says that she and her friends in the group now feel more confident to say no, that they “feel empowered and believe in ourselves,” and have the knowledge to avoid unwanted pregnancies.