ProJeunes (Preventing Child, Early, and Forced Marriage in Benin)

Like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Benin has a young population, with 48% of the population under 15 years old. These young people, particularly adolescent girls, face significant challenges related to sexual and reproductive health. Thirty-seven percent of women are married before the age of 18 and 20% of 15-19-year-old girls have given birth at least once. ProJeunes works to increase the accessibility of adolescent sexual and reproductive health services and to enhance protection of the rights of adolescent girls through psychosocial support and strengthened government and civil society policies that respond to CEFM, gender-based violence, and adolescent SRHR. The project includes the following activities: SRHR education for adolescents - training teachers and peer educators to provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education to boys' and girls' youth clubs (for in school and out of school adolescents). Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services - training health care workers to provide adolescent and youth-friendly SRH services, conducting supportive supervision visits to health facility staff, providing monitoring and evaluation tools to improve data and quality analysis, and rehabilitating and equipping health facilities to make them more adolescent and youth-friendly. Psycho-social support to CEFM survivors - delivering psychosocial support through social promotion centers, training social workers, and developing a standard operating procedure for the provision of this support. Promotion of adolescent girls’ sexual and reproductive rights - conducting community dialogues for adolescents, boys and girls, and young women and men using CARE's Social Analysis and Action approach to reflect on gender dynamics and generate ideas to improve access to SRH information and services. Advocacy and governance - providing evidence-based recommendations and policy options to the Government of Benin on how to strengthen adolescent SRH services and protect adolescent girls from CEFM; using CARE's Community Score Card process to bring together community members with health facility and social promotion center staff; developing youth-led advocacy initiatives through training, mentorship, and financial support.