Articles about Kenya

The Japan Trust Fund (JTF) represents a visionary partnership that began in 2000 between the Government of Japan and IPPF. Together, we invest in programmes that prioritize health equity, gender equality, and human security for all. Traditionally a driving force behind IPPF's efforts to support the integrated HIV prevention programmes of our Member Associations in Africa and Asia, JTF has adjusted to reflect changing global health priorities. We attach importance to universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights - an essential contributor to universal health coverage and the global development goals.     These projects have transformed the lives of people most vulnerable to HIV and high risk of maternal and child mortality. Equally, it ensures that as a donor, the GOJ’s response to HIV remains people-centred and contributes to human security.      

This programme addresses critical challenges faced by young women around sexual health and sexuality. It has produced a range of advocacy, education and informational materials to support research, awareness-raising, advocacy and service delivery.  Girls Decide is about the sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls and young women. Around the world, girls aged 10 to 19 account for 23% of all disease associated with pregnancy and childbirth. An estimated 2.5 million have unsafe abortions every year. Worldwide, young women account for 60% of the 5.5 million young people living with HIV and/or AIDS. Girls Decide has produced a range of advocacy, education and informational materials to support work to improve sexual health and rights for girls and young women. These include a series of films on sexual and reproductive health decisions faced by 6 young women in 6 different countries. The films won the prestigious International Video and Communications Award (IVCA). When girls and young women have access to critical lifesaving services and information, and when they are able to make meaningful choices about their life path, they are empowered. Their quality of life improves, as does the well-being of their families and the communities in which they live. Their collective ability to achieve internationally agreed development goals is strengthened. Almost all IPPF Member Associations provide services to young people and 1 in every 3 clients is a young person below the age of 25. All young women and girls are rights-holders and are entitled to sexual and reproductive rights.

The SPRINT Initiative provides one of the most important aspects of humanitarian assistance that is often forgotten when disaster and conflicts strike. Ensuring access to essential life-saving SRH services for women, men and children in times of crises, a time when services are most needed yet are not prioritised or recognised by key humanitarian responders, SPRINT delivers practical solutions for girls and women, trains humanitarian workers to deal with pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health and the aftermath of rape and violence. Besides working to ensure emergency humanitarian programs in the field respond to such needs, SPRINT engages in political processes, working towards raising awareness, strengthening coordination, and building capacities to provide SRH services in crises. Saving lives is the core of the SPRINT Initiative. SPRINT Initiative is funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) under Australian Government and managed by International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). Sprint partners Sprint objectives

In conjunction with contractors, the Japan Trust Fund (JTF) ensured that the safety and security of construction workers building the 2nd Thailand Laos Friendship Bridge became a 24-hour concern.  On the Mekong river they say: “helmet for every site, condom for every night” Massive construction projects demand massive amounts of manpower. In both the developing and developed world, labourers are often temporary, unskilled, migrant and young, and predominantly male. Living conditions can be poor, sites isolated and workers may end up separated from home and family for months on end. Evening entertainment revolves round local bars and beer holes, and recreation is frequently a macho mix of drink and sex, driven by a ready supply of cash. Women purposefully frequent the area to sell sex, while barmaids, waiters and barstaff engage in informal sex work.  As a result, construction workers and the local community are more vulnerable to HIV. At 3 immense East Asian infrastructure developments funded by the Government of Japan, JTF backed HIV education programmes in conjunction with IPPF Member Associations in Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Associations at each site adopted tactics and strategies to prevent and treat HIV: counselling, testing, mobile clinics, posters, leafleting, peer-education and entertainment/information evenings (“karaoke and condoms”). Every project produced measurable improvements in awareness and behaviour. At JTF’s Bridge of Hope project, for example, HIV and AIDS awareness among construction workers hit 92% (compared to the local average of 62%). This work is now feeding into a widespread international movement to establish workplace policies for HIV and AIDS. Policies which not only recognize the devastating personal impact of HIV on individuals lives, but also the financial impact of poor HIV and AIDS education on companies and whole national economies. It is a message which will take considerable time to impress upon international policy makers, but a lot less time to communicate to construction workers. As the poster says, “Helmet for every site, condom for every night”. 

Halimah was 17 when she made this film. This is the story of what happened when she first had unprotected sex: how she was ostracised by her family and thrown out of school, and how she felt that her future had been taken away. Things looked bleak for Halimah but that’s not quite the end of the story...