63% of girls and women in our communities mostly in the urban and rural communities where we are working are significantly affected with poverty, with most of them leaving below a dollar a day. In Kenya, it is estimated that one in every 10 people suffer from a common mental disorder. The number increases to one in every four people among patients attending routine outpatient services. Depression and anxiety disorders are the leading mental illnesses diagnosed in Kenya, followed by substance use disorders. Among the different types of substances, alcohol contributes to the largest burden of substance use related illnesses in Kenya. Of great concern alcohol abuse is most prevalent in the 18-29-year-old age group. The Population council report 2020 on impact of COVID -19 on adolescents in Kenya On mental health, a significant proportion of adolescents reported experiencing depressive symptoms including stress during the pandemic. Close to half of all adolescents in urban areas (Kisumu 47%, Nairobi 46%) and one third in rural areas (Kilifi 34%) experiencing symptoms associated with depression during the 9-month school closure. Adolescent girls and boys reported increasing tension in the household and cases of emotional, physical, and sexual violence over the past year. Sexual violence was almost exclusively experienced by adolescent girls, with 2% of girls reporting sexual violence cases within a month prior to the interviews. Conversely, physical violence was more prevalent among boys, with 52% of boys and 39% of girls reporting physical violence. Across all the reports of violence, half to three-quarters of the respondents stated that violence had increased compared to the pre-COVID era. These increases in tension and violence were attributed to loss of employment and income, income, stresses arising from restricted movement forcing families to spend time cooped in smaller spaces, and in some cases, unintended pregnancies Girls Power Punch initiative is will provide training to adolescent girls ( Minicoaches) to using boxing and element of self defense and resilience skills to provide peer to peer support and follow-up with their peers in schools and the community in promoting community mental well-being and also building a community that is resilient through sports. project aimed at involving girls and their families with the goal of improving the mental well-being of girls , in which every girls can realize their potentials , can cope with the normal stresses of life can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make a contribution to her community . We will also involve the parents and the caregivers and also teachers in the intervention process equipping them with skills , knowledge and support on mental health inorder to be in the frontline in ensuring that the environments girls are in at home and in schools is conducive for them to thrive . The initiative will train 30 coaches and mini-coaches who will be conducting monthly Girls Power Punch wellness sessions to girls in their communities, with each girl reaching out to a maximum of 40 girls in totaling 600 people reached ( 500 girls reached directly and 100 parents and teachers). We will have 30 girls power punch mini-projects within the community-led and organized by the mini-coaches. The mini-coaches will be taking part in online training sessions with Angela meyer. Angela will help facilitate the training on self defense skills integrated with key resilience soft skills for the mini-coaches to master and therefore engage the other girls in their community. We will also develop e-tools for the Girls Power Punch initiative to help them in the facilitation of activities and also for their continuous learning. This initiative is critical since we are convinced that girls bodies are robust and can enable them to do great things if activated, protected and strengthened. The initiative will imbue girls’ lives with hope, strength and joy, using sports as a right as well as an entry point to other rights. This initiative will provide spaces for individual differences and diversity, for self-discovery, healing and for the inner light to shine.
Girls Power Punch Wellness Initiative
