By Veeslee Mhepo
My Age Zimbabwe in collaboration with Development Agenda for Girls and Women in Africa Network (DAWA) through the support from ViiV Healthcare have joined hands to implement a project known as ‘Connecting Adolescent Girls and Women for HIV Prevention’.
The two organisations have kick-started the training of Adolescent Girls and Women for HIV Prevention in Mwenezi and Masvingo jointly.
Through the ViiV project, the two organizations are focusing on reducing the number of new HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women in Masvingo Urban and Mwenezi districts, as well as promoting health-seeking behavior among girls and young women.
Mwenezi District Development Coordinator (DDC) Innocent Mutambara welcomed the initiative in Mwenezi and said it was very important considering the number of HIV infections among young people and said HIV prevention will help protect the future.
“HIV prevention is the way to go as this is a good platform to protect the future. We welcome this initiative in the district as it will help reduce HIV infections in our communities and we will be supportive throughout the project to have a good outcome,” said Mutambara.
Mwenezi District Medical Officer (DMO) Doctor Matibhiri said the project was vital in Mwenezi, has full support and is looking forward to great outcomes with increased HIV and Aids knowledge among adolescent girls and young women.
Mwenezi District Ministry of Women’s Affairs representative Abdiel Mboweni said the project will enhance advocacy on gender equality as gender inequalities contribute to the spread of HIV.
“As the Ministry of Women’s Affairs we welcome this project as we continue to advocate for gender equality since gender inequalities contribute to the spread of HIV,” Mboweni said.
With a primary objective of scaling up into districts with high HIV incidence among AGYW in Zimbabwe, the project will then proceed to engage with community-based, youth-led, and women-led organizations to foster collaborations and pool resources.
