Improving the reproductive health of adolescents in Senegal.

In October 1999 the Frontiers in Reproductive Health Program (FRONTIERS) began a three-year collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) the Ministries of Health Education and Youth the Center for Research and Training in Health and Population (CEFOREP) and the Population Training Group (GEEP) to test interventions to improve the reproductive health of youth aged 10-19. The community-based intervention included sensitization on adolescent reproductive health for community and religious leaders reaching parents through women’s groups and education sessions led by peer educators using a life skills curriculum. As part of the clinic-based intervention providers and peer educators were trained to offer youth-friendly services. The school-based intervention trained teachers and peer educators to provide reproductive health information through a reproductive health curriculum tailored to in-school youth. The study took place in three urban communities in northern Senegal. The communities of Louga and Saint-Louis served as intervention sites while Diourbel served as a control site. Both intervention sites offered the community- and clinic-based interventions; and Saint-Louis also introduced the school-based intervention. A quasi-experimental design was used to determine the feasibility effectiveness and cost of a systematic intervention to foster a supportive environment for dealing with reproductive health problems of youth to make existing services more accessible to youth and to provide reproductive health information and skills in schools. (excerpt)