Kilifi County’s population is significantly young as 65% of the population is below the age of 24. Women of reproductive age constitute 24.5 % of the population (KPHC 2019). In 2022, KDHS recorded approximately 12.5% of adolescent girls falling into early and unplanned pregnancies. The contributing factors include; a lack of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education, limited access to contraception, poverty, and cultural setups which allow for GBV occurrence in all its forms. Girls in our previous engagements shared that lack of livelihood skills lead them into practicing transactional sex which exposed them to teenage pregnancy.

GiPAD is a mentorship program designed to address the sexual and reproductive health needs of Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGWY) in Kilifi County. The project will mainstream both creativity and peer to peer aspects in increasing the access to sexual and reproductive health information and services among AGYW in Kilifi County.
As the title suggests “Girls Passions and Dreams”, the project will be focus on the prevention of Sexual and Reproductive Health related challenges faced by young people including HIV New Infections, Teenage Pregnancy, Maternal Mortality due to early pregnancy and abortion, and GBV which are believed to be primary obstacles in preventing young girls from achieving their full potential.
The project will leverage on the GiPAD 3 main interventions;
a) Digital PADs; this will involve the design of an application dubbed GiPAD which will help peer mentors (trained from the mapped young mothers) in the conduct of monitored peer to peer sessions. The app will provide reliable SRHR information designed in story form and will be linked to other existing platforms such as the Life Yangu Platform that the girls can access different versions of SRHR information and Linkages to access to contraceptives.
b) GiPAD Dignity Packs; girls will be exposed to a livelihood skills training where they will be trained specifically on the basic tailoring skills to support them design reusable sanitary towels (PAD). These skills will be useful to the young girls in preventing dependency that leads them to practicing transactional sex for access of sanitary commodities.
c) GiPAD Comic Book; The book (a print out of the app) will tell a transformative story of a young girl who through the GiPAD app and reusable sanitary pad making, she managed to beat teen pregnancy, HIV New infections and GBV and completed her education.

Despite the GiPAD 3 key interventions being designed through the Human Centered and Holistic approaches, the interventions will be addressing the SRH needs in a way that will help tap on emerging needs. This is because the whole design creates room for learning and relearning and references.
The Digital PAD will have an app that unlike many others will be accessed offline enabling a large number of young people not only in the project scope but country wide to access information freely provided they have access to a digital device. The GiPAD Comic Book will be designed through involvement of the young girls in creation of their daily lives story. The comic book also be accessed through the app and will be a direct reciprocate of the app. This comic book will help the mentored girls access the information at hand.

1. The project will lead to o increase access to SRH information, Services and commodities among the youths in Kilifi County.
2. It will also help in reducing teenage pregnancy by bridging the SRH gap among Adolescent Girls and Young Women.
3. The project will help in the support of AGYWs to achieve their full potential by participating in the prevention of teenage pregnancy, HIV new infections and GBV.

The app will make it easier for the project to be adopted in the other parts of the country.

1. Assessment Phase (Months 1-2):
Milestone: Conduct a comprehensive needs assessment to identify specific issues, target demographics, and existing resources.
Timeline: Two months.
Resources: human resources for baseline survey, community engagement tools, and budget for data collection.

2. Program Alignment (1 Month)
Milestone: Designing the program and aligning it to the community needs collected.
Timeline: one month.
Resources: expert consultation, human resource involvement for program redesign.

3. App and Comic Book Design (Months 5-7):
Milestone 1: Collection of girl’s stories and transforming them into transformative narrative.
Timeline: 2 months.
Resources: support of story collection sessions.

Milestone 2; Designing of the App and Comic Book
Timeline; 3 Months
Resources; Comic Designing expertise and app development expertise

4. Launching and Handing Over
Milestone: Launch GiPAD App and Book
Timeline: One Day.
Resources: Conference, and girls support to attend.

5. Training of girls on reusable sanitary pads.
Milestone; Basic tailoring training
Timeline: Two months.
Resources: purchase of tailoring machines and training expertise.

6. Mentorship
Milestone; Girls Peer to Peer Mentorship
Timeline: 6 months
Resources: Digital Pads, Support of Session conduct, support of Monitoring and Evaluation.

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