The Jigenge project is a joint initiative run by AMREF, the city council in Mwanza, Tanzania, local communities and a network of other NGOs. It targets women’s reproductive health in a holistic way, seeing it as part of a broader range of health care priorities, including addressing domestic violence, sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS, prostitution, polygamy, and patriarchal inheritance practices.
Jijenge aims to reduce poverty by promoting good quality, accessible reproductive health care for women, and strengthening government and community health care practices in the Lake Victoria area in order to provide this. It promotes the need for qualified staff who provide gender-sensitive sexual and reproductive health services. It also funds and lobbies for networks at community, district and national levels to promote women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Jijenge Project: achievements
- Primary health care services in the eight districts of the lake zone have been improved by the promotion of qualified personnel providing quality, gender sensitive reproductive health services
- The gender-sensitive, women-friendly approach to reproductive health promoted by the project has now been adopted by all seven districts in Mwanza region
- Community members in the district, both men and women, have been trained in human and reproductive rights, gender and reproductive health issues. They, in turn, train and mobilise fellow community members to understand the issues and change behaviour
- The project has helped to bring issues that were once hidden – including domestic violence, female genital mutilation and patriarchal inheritance practices – out into the open
- The Jijenge project has brought together at least 20 organisations who now advocate for stronger policies to ensure that these issues are covered by district and national health plans, and that local authorities cannot ignore them in the future
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