Key partners

Equality Effect in collaboration with International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRHK)

Donor

Equality Effect Organization

Period of implementation

2022 -2023

Location: Mombasa & Kilifi

Overview of the project

The 160 Girls Virtual Justice Club (VJC) project  aimed at creating legal awareness on the ideal procedures for defilement reporting among children. The scale-up followed previous Justice Club interventions namely the 2018/2019 conventional justice clubs and the 2020 Virtual Justice Clubs in Mombasa County.

This project was based on a 2013 landmark ruling where on May 27, 2013, the High Court of Kenya ruled that the police treatment of the “160 Girls” petitioners’ claims violated their human rights, and that the police treatment of defilement had created a climate of impunity for defilement, which rendered them indirectly responsible for the harms inflicted by the perpetrators. This intervention was anchored on the premise that an increased awareness of the expectations for defilement case handling among children will empower them to protect their rights and those of others in their community.

It was also cognizant of the opportunities for technology in educating the children of this generation. The VJC was composed of online educative, and interactive content on sexual violence rights for young adolescents. Another approach to this intervention was the distribution of newsletters with participation from the children enrolled in the program, their siblings, teachers, parents, and police.

Impact

Approximately 675 students have directly benefited from learning their SRH rights between the years 2022 and 2023 (75 children per school in 9 schools)