After graduating from Whitefish High School in 2014, Claire Watts is planning to make an impact on Zimbabwean women’s sexual health and reproductive rights.

The 18-year-old liberal arts student at St. John’s College in New Mexico has teamed up with friends Adna Arnaout and Lily Weissgold to train these “Supergirls of Zimbabwe.”

The trio has achieved a $5,000 fundraising goal in part due to a Projects for Peace grant to travel to Zimbabwe and hold five-day workshops for about 30 women ages 16 to 20 in sexual health and reproductive rights. The hope is that these Supergirls of Zimbabwe will, in turn, go out into their communities to educate other women.

“We’ve all been extremely dedicated to women’s health issues all our life,” Watts said.

The project has three goals: “Provide foundational education on reproductive health; promote acceptance and understanding of sexuality and safe sex; and equip young women with the necessary skills to start safe community conversations about sex.”

Watts and her two friends decided to reach out to women in Zimbabwe following a conversation with a classmate.

“A classmate named Johannes, who is from Zimbabwe, talked about the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in his country,” Watts said.

The government has attempted to address the problem without substantial impact, Watts added.

“It’s a heavily stigmatized subject there,” she said. “There are sex education courses in biology class, which girls are included, but it’s not very effective,” Watts said. “It’s a fairly religious country and the main message is abstinence.”

When discussions on sexual and reproductive health do come up, women aren’t always included in the discussion. Watts and her peers wanted to change this and empower women through education. Without understanding what their rights are, it’s difficult for women to make decisions about their bodies, Watts said.

Some of those basic rights, she said, involve health care, contraception and family planning.

When asked if Watts thought women would be receptive to talking about sex and reproductive health openly, Watts said, “Yes,” noting that women have applied to receive training and she hopes to have a total of 30 participants in the cities of Bulawayo and Harare.

In an email to potential sponsors, Watts said, “We’ll kick off the workshops with a clear message of acceptance by giving participants care packages of donated contraception and menstrual health products. Next we will lead interactive lessons on the topics of sexual health and sexual health advocacy. We will host exciting guest speakers — local leaders in the fields of reproductive rights and sexual health. And most importantly, we will lead peer-to-peer conversations which will give the Supergirls the opportunity to think about sexual health in terms of their own lives and their own communities.”

But there also will be an effort to reach out to the community through social events for the three organizers to introduce themselves and try to have a dialogue about their goals.

The goal is for the trained women to start their own initiatives and create a sustainable program once Watts leaves.

“We’re going in realizing this conversation is even hard in our lives,” Watts said. “We’ll learn from girls in Zimbabwe and see what conversation we can have together.”

Any additional donations will go to Sally’s Women Institute based in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Supergirls of Zimbabwe is coordinating with the institute to carry out its project. To donate, visit http://bit.ly/23VhFsO.

For more information visit https://supergirlsofzimbabwe.wordpress.com.

Hilary Matheson is a reporter for The Daily Inter Lake. She may be reached at 758-4431 or [email protected].