• Home
• About Us
  • About Project SEARCH
  • Our Partners
  • Contact Us
• Publications and Materials
  • Capacity Building Tools
  • Case Studies
  • Data Sets
  • Reports
  • Research/Evaluation Tools
  • Research Protocols
  • Research Use Tools
  • Working Papers
• Research and Evaluation Topics
  • HIV Prevention
  • HIV Care and Support
  • HIV Treatment
  • Orphans and Vulnerable Children
  • HIV Counseling and Testing
  • Survey and Surveillance Analysis
  • Formative Research
  • Program Evaluations
• Resources
  • Acronyms
  • Useful Links
• News & Updates
  • Meetings & Events
• Regions
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe and Eurasia
  • Latin America and the Caribbean
  • Global/Multi-Country Research
• Task Orders
  • DATE
  • Go Girls Initiative
  • OVC-CARE
  • OVC Mapping and Directory
  • HIV/AIDS Evaluation, Assessment, and Formative Research
  • R2P

Go Girls! Initiative

The Go Girls! Initiative is a gender initiative focused on girl’s vulnerability to HIV.  The project shifts the focus from the individual-as-risk-taker to the contextual factors that render girls vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.  The project was awarded to the Johns Hopkins’ Center for Communications Programs (CCP) under Project SEARCH. The Go Girls! Initiative is a multisite project aimed at reaching girls 10–17 years old in Botswana, Malawi, and Mozambique. CCP is working with MACRO International and various country partners on this initiative.  The Go Girls! Initiative began in September 2007 and will run through September 2010.  The purpose of this project is to develop, implement, and monitor a multi-level strategy using behavior and normative change communication and structural interventions to reduce vulnerable adolescent girls’ susceptibility to HIV infection.  Formative research in each country confirmed the wisdom of a social-ecological approach to address a multitude of vulnerability factors at the individual, peer, community, and social levels.

The CCP team in each country combines quantitative and qualitative data collection methods to guide the initiative, and disseminates and discusses results with communities and national and international stakeholders.

Project Objectives

• Reduce vulnerable girls’ susceptibility to HIV infection
• Stimulate dialogue and action among communities to address the needs of vulnerable girls, particularly with respect to reducing exposure to HIV infection
• Create or strengthen an enabling environment where communities protect vulnerable girls from infection; institutions provide needed resources and opportunities; families support and protect their daughters; and girls adopt protective health practices.
• Build the capacity of local organizations to implement, and measure the impact of, integrated programs to reduce vulnerable girls’ exposure to HIV infection.

Project Activities and Highlights

	An HIV-positive woman from India speaks about HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, and sexual rights of women to students in a rural village. Source: © 2006 Pradeep Tewari, Courtesy of Photoshare

The initiative will design, implement, and test two distinct integrated models in the three program countries of Botswana, Malawi, and Mozambique, with the aim of providing solid evidence of what works and in which circumstances.

Key interventions will include:

• Community mobilization
• Adult-child communication
• Entertainment education through radio and community drama
• Life skills curricula in and out of school
• Training for teachers and school administrators
• Economic strengthening of girls and their families

For further information, please contact:

• Carol Underwood, cunderwo@jhuccp.org
• Jane Brown, jbrown@jhuccp.org
  
• Patricia Poppe, poppe@jhuccp.org
  
• Joanna Skinner, jskinner@jhuccp.org

• Mozambique: Patrick Devos, pdevos@jhuccp.org.mz
  
• Malawi: Assana Magombo, amagombo@gogirlsmalawi.org
  
• Botswana: Tinaye Mmusi, mmusisonto@gmail.com