Project achievement

By forming and training a project team in the area R-FPAP built strong relationships with local communities, engaging with medical professionals, tribal councils and religious leaders.

In order to reach SGBV and HTP survivors, the project team set up four static clinics run by Lady Health Visitors (LHV) and eight monthly medical camps. Further medical camps were held twice a month at Dar-ul-Aman.

The project team developed outreach clinics in remote areas and regularly shared their learnings throughout the project. Through this they achieved the following:

• Local SGBV and HTP survivors have been given better access to SRH information and services and can now make informed decisions regarding their reproductive healthcare.
• They have been economically empowered, through skills training, improving their self-confidence and enabling women and girls to attain a stronger social position where they are better able to fight stigma and discrimination and stand up to SGBV and HTP.
• The community has been given both the capacity and the structure needed to address SGBV and HTP effectively.
• Referral partners have been linked together effectively, to work for women's healthcare, protection from violence and social empowerment.

A particularly successful aspect of the project was engaging and connecting various groups of people at both a community and a district level, and involving local media and theatre groups in publicising the issues.

These initiatives enabled a holistic and joined-up discussion of the issues surrounding SGBV and HTP, at both individual and societal levels. By including government departments, public and private stakeholders and influential community members in these discussions, the project created support networks and collective consciousness to drive long-lasting social changes in the communities of Mardan.