IFGH 2012: Minding the Gap in Alexandria: Communication between School Service Providers and Female Youth about Reproductive Health

Authors:Hanafy S.


Author Affiliations:Alexandria Regional Centre for Women’s Health and Development

Option 2– Lessons from the field; project and programme evaluations; and syntheses or analyses Presented as – Poster (unable to present)

Issues:

While schools can serve as secure venues to inform young people about reproductive health (RH), less than 15% of boys and only 5% of girls received information on puberty in schools as revealed in the 2009 Survey of Young People in Egypt. With the support of the Ford Foundation, Alexandria Regional Center for Women’s Health and Development is implementing the “Reproductive Health Awareness Program among Female Youth in Secondary Schools in Alexandria.” The project aim is to develop a model intervention program on important age-appropriate RH information among adolescent girls.

Description:

The two-year project (2011-2012) has three components:

• Research that includes both qualitative and quantitative data collection
• Training and development of a culturally sensitive model for integrating RH into school curricula.
• Testing that applies the model in different schools and assesses its impact.


Lessons learned: 


A qualitative study initially conducted to assess gaps between female adolescents’ needs for appropriate RH information. The study also revealed that school teachers, doctors, and social workers are unprepared to take on the task of accurately informing young girls about RH. Both the girls and the school officials expressed a desire to gain the information and skills to address these gaps. Based on the research findings, training programs on RH issues conducted to relevant school personnel. A model RH curriculum was developed to be implemented by the trained personnel in the intervention component in twelve secondary schools in Alexandria. 


Next steps:


Build support for the program and its outcomes in the different schools of Alexandria and with other local and national stakeholders to generate support for reproductive health education for adolescent girls in general and specifically for this curriculum as a tested and ready-to-use tool.