Sabiny Transformation Initiative (STI) is an organization that seeks to promote gender equality in Uganda by advocating for girls’ education and an end to early and forced child marriages. STI works toward these goals through programs aimed at preventing gender-based violence, supporting sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR), and engaging community members and parents. To date, the organization has reached 8,000 parents and 3,500 adolescents through its SRHR courses. STI has also engaged 120 mentors and medical professionals through its efforts to end female genital mutilation. Additionally, STI has reached 7,500 young girls and boys through its adolescent clubs, which operate in 15 schools in the Kapotoyoy and Binyiny sub-counties. These clubs focus on preventing early pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, equipping young people with knowledge and skills relating to their sexual and reproductive health.
The Girls Opportunity Alliance Fund will support STI’s programming, which takes a collaborative approach between participants and their parents to support girls’ education and rights. STI will hold classes to equip girls and parents with essential life skills, focusing on reproductive health rights and economic empowerment. The program will connect these topics to the importance of girls’ education in each training session, and participants will engage in lessons which aim to change social attitudes about common practices like early marriages and female geneital mutilation. STI’s programming will also include lessons on informed advocacy, teaching participants to engage with leaders on changing social norms which harm women and girls. Specifically, STI will adopt the human rights-based programming approach (HRBA), which focuses on mobilizing and organizing communities to create safe spaces for empowerment. Through direct education and community-based advocacy, STI hopes to affect long-term change by reaching girls, their parents, and community stakeholders. In total, STI hopes to reach 5,000 girls, 1,000 parents, and 140 local leaders.
For more information about Sabiny Transformation Initiative, view the organization’s Facebook page here.
See more projects: Africa, East Africa, Child Marriage, Leadership & Life Skills Development, Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights