Adolescent Girls at Risk

The GIRRL Program as a Capacity-Building Initiative in South Africa

Abstract

The future of adolescent girls living in informal settlements in South Africa is undermined by physical and sexual violence, poverty, alcohol, drugs, prostitution, teenage pregnancy, social pressures, and diseases such as HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, and tuberculosis. Complicated by the intrusion of ascribed cultural and social norms, their lives are often characterized by limited education, limited social power, belittlement, demoralization and marginalization. This uninviting scenario is further compounded by the incidence of hazards such as flooding and fire that threaten to overwhelm their environments and already fragile existence. This field report describes the GIRRL Program capacity-building initiative and highlights lessons learned and obstacles faced when working with adolescent girls in disaster risk reduction. This report asserts that adolescent girls have a viable role to play in supporting community-based disaster-reduction initiatives.