Women and girls require the freedom to make their own choices about their sexual and reproductive health. They also require accurate information about HIV and access to health care and social supports that meet their distinct needs. Protecting their fundamental human rights is necessary for HIV interventions to be successful. When community-led organizations (CLOs) are adequately funded, they can play this crucial role.

CLOs are guided and driven by those they serve, ensuring that community needs, voices, and perspectives are at the heart of their work.

With support from the Samworth Foundation, the Stephen Lewis Foundation has collaborated with SSI, RISE and CWCA to document and share their remarkable work. This is the outcome of that documentation project.

Why support community-led organizations (CLOs) to do this work?

CLOs are led by and for their own communities. Organizations like SSI, RISE, and CWCA are at the heart of effective HIV responses because they understand and address the inequities and injustices that drive the epidemic.

Staff and volunteers belong to the communities they are serving, which allows them to work in ways others cannot.

Drawing on community connections, CLOs navigate specific cultural, social and economic contexts that can drive gender-based violence. Through networks of care and trust, they are able to address root causes and link survivors to services and supports that help them heal and seek justice.

These SLF partners are also dismantling harmful gender norms and chipping away at outdated beliefs. They work with community institutions, local and national governments, health and legal systems, influential leaders and trusted elders to identify and eliminate barriers to safety and justice.

SSI programs include life skills training and psychosocial support, like grandmothers’ support groups and individual and group counselling for young people and their caregivers. They provide entrepreneurship, leadership and mentorship training, including a Coaching Boys into Men (CBIM) program in which young men learn to prevent gender-based violence.

SSI activities encourage the fortification of family supports, preventing domestic violence and abuse, reporting gender-based violence and child neglect to the police, increasing economic stability, and improving coping strategies for those affected by gender-based violence and HIV.

SSI’s outreach and advocacy programs raise awareness about, and address, the root causes of gender-based violence and increase understanding of sexual and reproductive health and rights among young people, families and the broader community.

Serving the Lilongwe and Dowa Districts of Malawi, RISE envisions a world in which community members are empowered and meaningfully involved in governance and decision-making and policy-making processes that affect their lives.

RISE programs are committed to the empowerment of women and girls as well as their communities. They build knowledge and capacity among individuals and groups to address the marginalization of community members, the impact of the HIV epidemic, social injustice and human rights violations.

RISE focuses on mental health and well-being supports including community childcare centres, children, youth and girls’ clubs, and support for grandmothers and young mothers. RISE provides nutritional support, income-generation opportunities, HIV care and services, and sexual and reproductive health and rights education. They also offer training in how to advocate for the promotion and protection of basic rights for women and girls.