Gender

In Uganda, 22% of women have experienced some form of sexual violence, and this is commonest among the disabled, those with the least education and wealth. Moreover, 51% of all these victims neither seek help nor tell anyone about the violence. [1] This lack of reporting, because of the stigma attached to Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) [2], leaves many women suffering in silence and exposes them to many health risks, including HIV. This affects their quality of life and productivity.

Women and girls engaging in transactional sex (W/GETS) in Malawi, including female sex workers (FSWs), face stigma and social exclusion that result in human and civil rights violations and poor access to social services, with implications for SRH, economic security and individual realization. Legal issues of sexual assault including intimate partner violence (IPV), and disclosure and harassment by authorities, intersect with high rates of HIV, STIs, unwanted pregnancy, and mental illness.

Malawi is ranked eighth of the 20 countries that are considered to have the highest rates of child marriage by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). On average one out of two girls in Malawi will be married by their eighteenth birthday according to the United Nations. In 2010, half of the women (50 percent) aged 20–24 years were married or in union before age 18 (compared to 6.4 percent of boys). Data shows little to no change in child marriage prevalence since 2000 where it stood at 47 percent.

In Mozambique 50% of all girls marry before the age of 18. Sexual and gender-based violence is widespread. This leads to less power in decision-making and higher sexual activity among girls compared to non-married peers. Early pregnancies are common, increasing risks of maternal and child mortality. The median interval between marriage and first birth is 15 months, leading to school drop outs. Girls lack comprehensive sexuality education, negotiation skills and support in decision-making.

The innovation seeks to prevent and respond to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) among refugees within Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda, home to 102,029 refugees from DRC (47,400), Burundi (27,484), Somalia (16,559), and other nations (10,586), 51% of whom are women/girls of reproductive age. The project will address societal and structural determinants to RH among refugees, namely the presence of power imbalances that expose women to IPV, increasing their vulnerability to RH consequences.

Our innovation is a social innovation. It is a fusion of three models SASA! model, the men as partners (MAP) approach, and the social ecological model (SEM) in the project. The project seeks to bridge the gap on the practical aspects of an integrated approach where neither FGM nor intimate partner violence are addressed in isolation but as a holistic problem. The project emphasizes the role of men in addressing violence as allies rather than as a ‘women's' issue with sustained behavior change.

Normalized sexism in Paraguay. The circle of violence towards women and the intersection of this violence with sexual relations and reproductive relations. Women of different generations living at risk in rural and indigenous areas. Stigmatization and discriminatory attitudes towards women seeking help.

Sukhibhava seeks to make menstruation a non-issue. There are 300 million women and girls in India even today without either awareness or access to healthy menstrual practices. This has a direct negative impact on the health, education, economic power, gender roles, sexual health and reproductive rights of nearly one quarter of India's population. Lack of such basic information of their own bodies leads to these women losing their agency and exploitation of their own selves.

The psychological healing of women who experienced gender based violence have not been addressed adequately especially for the poorest women who don't have access to information and knowledge of any women's crisis centre. Since the impact of abuse is humongous, not for the women themselves, in form of mental health deterioration, but also for their children, in form of neglect and victimisation (1), these abused women's psychological healing is compulsory. This project address this problem

Our innovation addresses the myriad negative health and economic consequences of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). IPV is the most common form of violence against women worldwide (WHO; 2013). Women economically dependent upon a husband/male partner are significantly more likely than economically independent women to experience IPV (Bornstein, 2006; Dhungel, Dhungel, Dhital, & Stock, 2017).