Turning passion into action
At just 20 years old, this MSF peer educator is creating a legacy of empowered women in her community.
Photo: © Grace Mavheza/MSF
“I was born and bred in this environment, so I have seen the challenges that affect adolescent girls and young women, like unplanned pregnancy, early marriages and drug and substance abuse. Some girls run away from home to stay at the drug bases where they sell sex in exchange for drugs. I always wanted to change and save my peers’ lives, but I was not sure how best to do it." Tanatswa is a 20-year-old peer educator at MSF’s Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) project in the high-density suburb of Mbare, Harare in Zimbabwe, which sees high levels of poverty, desperation and substance abuse. Risky sexual behaviour that fuels the spread of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and HIV is also a concern and amplifies the vulnerability of the community’s youth. After being referred by her grandmother, Tanatswa was recruited for the MSF peer-to-peer programme in January 2020. “The training I got from MSF staff equipped me with all the necessary information on how to engage with the community. It made it clear what my role was,” she says. But the job wasn’t as straightforward as Tanatswa expected… At just 17, the community felt she was too young to give them such important information. Tanatswa, ever-positive, persevered and soon became a community role model. “It was not easy at first, but now many adolescents and young women are benefiting from this programme,” she says. “I assist them with HIV self-testing, pregnancy testing, provide emergency contraception, menstrual hygiene items and condoms, and refer them to other service providers accordingly based on their needs. I am happy to be a resource that supports women in my community. Peer education also opened doors for me.” When she’s not educating her community, Tanatswa works on further educating herself. “With access to free Wi-Fi at the MSF-supported Matapi Youth Hub, I managed to study for an online certificate in sexual reproductive health for adolescents and received more information on sexual reproductive health education," she says.
Since 2016, MSF has worked with 143 peer educators for the SRH project in Mbare, all of whom are recruited within the community. They are generally experts by experience, having been sex workers, teen parents, HIV patients or drug and substance use survivors, to mention but a few. The peer educators graduate around the age of 23 to make way for new recruits. When volunteering for MSF, they receive a scholarship to support their future goals.