The covid-19 pandemic crisis has put girls at risk of adolescent pregnancy, early and forced marriage and violence. For many of them, school is a lifeline that provides not only education but meals, emotional support and essential health-related guidance. We need people or a person who is able to share with girls about how to use family planning / how they can protect themselves from sexual diseases, to share with them to understand their rights, violence and sexual abuse and volunteers who can gain competence to undertake temporary engagement in the community, with a focus on supporting the needs of girls and young women.
In one of the districts we work in, because of school closures and closure of businesses during the pandemic, there has been a sudden upsurge of teenage pregnancy – over 300 girls in the district. The initiative sees healthcare workers and volunteers organize clinics in the communities we are serving and provide counselling, nutritional support and mentoring to vulnerable, at-risk girls.