Our 5 Pillars

The Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) programme seeks to engage adolescents and young people between the age of 10 -24 (in and out of school) through SRH training sessions to provide age appropriate information and refer them for services, community dialogues, parent child communication, parent to parent communication, edutainment, awareness campaigns and the use of mentors and role models. Child, Early and Forced Marriage: HOPE for Adolescents and Youth works with adolescent girls including those who are married and / or have children through equipping them with information on SRH, HIV, available health services within their communities as well as encouraging and supporting them to stay in school. The programme provides information and promotes contraceptive use among sexually active young people including child mothers and makes appropriate referrals for services.
Menstrual Health Management (MHM) – The programme supports adolescent girls and young women in targeted communities through provision of Supplies, Information and Facilities (SIF)for improved MHM. In an effort to address the Supply side of the MHM the programme initiated the ongoing Red with Glory Campaign in July 2018.The project empowers adolescent girls and young women through provision of a small-scale business that facilitates for the local production of low-cost washable (and soon disposable) sanitary napkins, made and sold in the local communities.
HIV Prevention- Youth Tackling HIV – HIV continues to be a major health problem for adolescents and young people in Zimbabwe. The main objectives of the Youth tackling HIV programme are i) to increase comprehensive knowledge on sexual reproductive health especially HIV and AIDS among adolescents girls and young women i) To promote safe sexual and reproductive health behavior particularly HIV prevention practices among adolescents and youth and iii)to create demand for and uptake of VMMC and HIV testing services.

The International development community increasingly recognizes the influence of gender on health and development outcomes. Gender norms play a powerful role in shaping the future of adolescent girls and boys. Adolescent girls face multiple challenges, including; inadequate access to education, poor nutrition, early marriages and low social status. As has already been shown in the previous section, gender disparities in HIV prevalence are evident in Zimbabwe, where girls are at a far greater risk of infection. Traditional practices can reinforce gender inequalities at community level, creating more barriers to positive health outcomes. Early marriages can be detrimental to the health of young girls. Reacting to financial pressure, parents may to marry off their daughters thereby affecting their educational prospects.

A great deal is said about the importance of youth participation and voice. In reality, youth – particularly girls and young women – rarely have opportunities to train and act as leaders or as advocates in places where the decisions that affect their lives and their human rights are made.This is against the backdrop, that they constitute 31% of the youth population and their population continues to grow. HOPE also believes that, apart from development at individual and group level, leadership equips young people to become responsible and active citizens in all spheres of life in society. This means that young people with the right leadership skills are mo re likely to participate actively in national socio-economic development endeavors

There is limited literature to justify key challenges for youth, but it’s clear that utilization of ICT in rural Zimbabwe is limited, due to lack of infrastructure; economic resources and the general use of ICT for less productive reasons mainly by the youth. Although there seems to be an increase in use of smartphones youth have generally utilized internet to share jokes and social media rumors and less on advertising and knowledge on key development issues. In some cases young people mismanage ICT tools and become exposed to destructive behaviors such as joining wrong social platforms leading to social immorality and illegal activities such as drug dealing. However, it is clear that ICT transcend borders, facilitating communication between young people across the globe