Sexual Health Perspectives of Pastoral Adolescent Girls in Samburu County

• Main Author: Odera, Doreen Awino
• Format: Others
• Published: North Dakota State University 2020
• Subjects: body mapping; female education; pastoralists; sexual health perspectives; sexuality; traditional practices
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10365/31646

Teenage girls from the Turkana pastoral community in Northern Kenya have varying views of sexuality. Some parents choose to send their daughters to school creating disparate levels of knowledge about their bodies and sexual health. To better evaluate these differences, girls (13-18 years) were asked to develop body maps, a methodological technique that enables verbal and visual data collection. Interviews and participant observations were also used to gather data. This research involved a total of 33 participants and included both school going and non-school going girls. Triangulation of data from Interviews, participant observation, and body mapping provided multiple angles into the female pastoralist’s life experiences. The study demonstrated the heterogeneity and disparities that are present within pastoralists population in Samburu county, providing a more detailed understanding for future medical anthropological studies. The research furthered anthropological inquiry methodologically by introducing body mapping as a complement to conducting traditional ethnographic research.