Promotive and preventive health services for adolescent girls at risk of drug use

There are 1.2 billion adolescents (10-19 years old) worldwide today and this number will rise through 2050. Nearly nine out of ten adolescents live in low- and middle-income countries. While the majority of adolescent health issues are preventable or treatable, adolescents face multiple barriers in accessing the knowledge, information and health care they need. Adolescents have failed to experience the reduction in mortality seen by younger children. While under five deaths halved during the Millennium Development Goal period, progress in adolescent mortality has stalled. Globally, adolescents carry 11 percent of the global disease burden and each year there are more than 1.1 million adolescent deaths. Among the greatest challenges is drugs use which is poorly understood especially among women due to stigma and criminalization of drugs in many countries. Studies have shown that drug use among women who inject drugs starts at adolescence in context of sexual relationships with older men and low educational attainment. Therefore there exist opportunities to mitigate progression of drug use among adolescents girls in low and middle income countries through improving education attainment, comprehensive drug use education and sexual reproductive health as well as sustainable livelihoods.

What will Women Nest Do?

1. Identify girls at risk of drug use in low income urban setting.
2. Implement an online mentorship program composed of a combination of sexual reproductive health, comprehensive substance use and educational mentorship.
3. Leverage resources and knowledge from other existing sexual and reproductive health programs.
4. Ensure adolescent girls to remain at schools through mentorship and linking them up with scholarship and other funding opportunities in cases of school dropout.

What Women Nest aims to achieve….

1. Adolescent girls empowered to avoid the traps of drug use in sexual relationship
2. Adolescents who drop out of schools supported to go back school.

Adolescent girls supported to have great educational attainment.