PEPFAR: "Let's Confront, Not Ignore"

Link here. Excerpt:

'Some subjects can be easier to ignore than confront. Sweep them under the rug and maybe they will go away.

But as we all know, there are very few problems that go away simply through wishful thinking. Gender-based violence is one such problem that will not fade away unless we act. That’s why this year’s “Day of the Girl Child” on October 11th is drawing attention to “Empowering Adolescent Girls: Ending the Cycle of Violence.”

Sexual violence against pre-adolescents and adolescents is alarmingly high, with 28 to 38 percent of girls reporting an unwanted sexual experience before the age of 18.
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The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is working with U.S. implementing agencies, partner countries, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and other multilateral partners, and civil society groups to address gender-based violence and HIV prevention for adolescent girls in a holistic manner. This means bringing together many relevant approaches from multiple sectors– education, health, economic, and psycho-social– to establish a core package of evidence-based interventions.

PEPFAR is also a founding partner of “Together for Girls”– a ground-breaking public-private partnership that seeks to end violence against children, especially sexual violence against girls.'