A classroom intervention for girls in rural South Africa

Every year, Isaac Blumenthal says, 1.8 million new HIV infections occur, and they fall disproportionately on adolescent girls. Thousands of adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa leave school each year because of unintended pregnancy or contracting HIV, often, he says, through relationships with substantially older men.

A simple, evidence-based classroom intervention has been shown to reduce pregnancies and HIV transmission by nearly 30% in a randomized trial, he says, "yet very few organizations are actually delivering it." Over the past year he has been developing a nonprofit to bring that intervention to adolescent girls in rural South Africa.

“The evidence is there and the intervention already exists. The challenge now is making sure it reaches the girls who can benefit from it most.”

Isaac Blumenthal

The plan is to partner with schools and ministries of education to deliver the curriculum. It would be taught similarly to the sex education curriculum in other regions, in several sessions over the course of four months, and female leaders in the community would be educated to help teach it. "I am particularly excited about this model as it is rather scalable and employs locals," he says.

The curriculum already exists. What he is building is the organization to deliver it, and right now he is moving from research and planning to that. He has spent months researching and reviewing evidence, has met with several experts on the topic, and is working on designing an implementation model. He is also working on obtaining official 501(c)(3) status so he can begin applying for grants.

He graduates this December. He is completing his Master's in Nonprofit Management at the University of Pennsylvania, and his plan is to launch the organization full time after graduation, "or sooner if my course load allows."