Over 32,000 adolescent girls and young women from selected districts in three regions have benefited from innovative HIV prevention information and services through peer education sessions, social media and community outreach activities.

The beneficiaries, together with their partners, were assessed on HIV and STI risk to know how to tailor their needs and also received HIV prevention education, referrals and selected Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) information, contributing to increased awareness and improved health-seeking behaviours.

Under the Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) Project being implemented by the Hope for Future Generations (HFFG), in partnership with the Ghana Health Service under the National AIDS Control Programme and the Global Fund (GC7) grant, the project seeks to prevent new HIV infections among AGYW aged 15-24 years in selected districts across the Greater Accra, Eastern and Ashanti regions.

To this end, the HFFG organised a mid-year review meeting for Peer Educators and Community Health Nurses who are the implementers of the AGYW project.

The AGYW Project Coordinator, HFFG, Rita Lodonu, said the project had seen an increased uptake of HIV testing among adolescents in the implementation communities.

She said within the first half of the year, the project had made steady progress towards achieving its targets with a total of 32,238 (60 per cent) AGYW and their partners having been reached with innovative HIV prevention information and services through peer education sessions, social media, and community outreach activities. 

Community outreach

The Executive Director of HFFG, Cecilia Senoo, described the intervention as timely, given the sexual and reproductive health challenges confronting young people.

She attributed the progress to peer-to-peer education, community outreach and the involvement of community health nurses in reaching beneficiaries and linking them to health facilities.

The Deputy Programme Manager, National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), Dr Anthony Ashinyo, commended the peer educators and community nurses for the work they have done so far.

He, however, called for more to be done, saying, "We cannot achieve elimination without bringing everyone on board".

He said so far, adolescents were being hard hit by HIV, and there was a need for more work to be done to help prevent new infections among them.

The Monitoring and Implementation (M&E) officer, Country Coordination Mechanism (CCM) of the Global Fund, Ken Yeboah, also commended the team, adding that their contribution in helping to eliminate HIV from the communities they work in has proved that eliminating HIV was feasible and called on them to work harder for more progress.

Sustained access to HIV services

The Director of Technical Services at the Ghana AIDS Commission, Dr Fred Nana Poku, on behalf of the Executive Director,  Dr Kharmacelle Prosper Akanbong, noted that young people, particularly adolescent girls and young women, required renewed attention, stronger prevention interventions and sustained access to accurate information and quality HIV services.

A nurse and implementer of the project, Lydia Gyafo, at the Tema Metro, said initially they faced resistance from the beneficiaries of the project, but they understood with time and had, therefore, warmed up to them.