Hair salons may offer a safe community space to engage young women and address barriers related to sexual and reproductive health (SRH). In settings such as Lesotho, where young women face enormous SRH challenges, novel and accessible spaces besides traditional health facility settings are urgently needed. HIV- and pregnancy-related complications are still the leading cause of death among young women in high HIV prevalence settings in sub-Saharan Africa.
We plan an innovative cross-sectional survey – designed and conducted in collaboration with citizen scientists – to gather data among 100 hair stylists and 300 clients across Lesotho. The findings are complemented by qualitative research, narrative storytelling and a video documentary.
We aim to assess the acceptability and feasibility of offering SRH services (for example oral contraceptives, menstrual products, HIV self-testing or HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis) in hair salons and explore the role of stylists in such a care model.
Follow-up plans include a pilot and a cluster-randomised trial across different countries in southern Africa.
The project consortium consists of partners from the Division of Clinical Epidemiology, Basel, Switzerland, the Epidemiology, Biostatistic and Prevention Institute, Zurich, Switzerland, the Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, USA, the Colorado School of Public Health, Denver, USA, the CHUV Lausanne, Switzerland – coordinated by The Hub in Lesotho.
The project is funded by Citizen Science Zurich.
We received ethics approval from Lesotho to start the survey and are currently looking for motivated stylists to collaborate with:
The University of Zurich recently wrote an article about the project; check it out:
Want to know more about our first Citizen Scientist Workshop we held end of 2023 to conceptualise the survey? Watch the video recap:
And read a recent post about the workshop:
PARTNERS
The Hub 