By Ray Masuku
In the villages of Gokwe, Zimbabwe, where long distances separate communities from clinics, schools, and other basic services and opportunities, some adolescent girls are quietly carrying the weight of a changing development landscape. For years, many of them depended on key programs that were funded through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), particularly the DREAMS programme, which targeted adolescent girls and young women vulnerable to HIV, poverty, child marriages, and gender-based violence.
DREAMS, an acronym for Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe, was more than a health intervention. In rural Zimbabwe, it became a support system as girls received school fees assistance, life-skills training, menstrual hygiene support, vocational opportunities, and access to sexual and reproductive health services. Village health workers conducted awareness campaigns, and mentors checked on girls who were vulnerable to dropping out of school, gender-based violence, or early marriages. Community groups created by DREAMS created safe spaces where girls could talk openly about abuse, pregnancy, and poverty.
Since its introduction in Zimbabwe in 2015, DREAMS has been credited with helping to reduce HIV vulnerability by up to 40 percent in high-burden communities among adolescent girls and young women through integrated education, health, and social protection interventions. Furthermore, the Newsday Zimbabwe (2024) reported that the DREAMS programme helped more than 59 000 girls with uniforms, school fees, sexual health services, and sanitary support between 2018 and 2025. But the recent withdrawal of USAID support has left communities that relied heavily on donor-backed social services feeling uncertain. Across rural districts, the question is no longer whether DREAMS changed community lives, but whether those gains can survive without sustained external funding.
What has followed the withdrawal of USAID-backed support is a quiet struggle that is unfolding behind the statistics. Adolescent girls who once had access to mentorship, school support, and youth-friendly health services are now trying to navigate with far fewer resources. For many families already burdened by poverty, irregular food supply because of droughts, and rampant unemployment, the disappearance of these support systems has exposed how fragile progress can be when it is heavily dependent on donor funding.
At 18 years old, Eddyline Chiketa remembers the DREAMS programme as the reason she managed to complete her Ordinary Level education. She said that the programme provided more than school fees and sanitary wear; “We were taught how to protect ourselves, how to report abuse and how to stay focused in school. There were mentors who visited us regularly and encouraged us not to lose hope, but now many girls feel forgotten because the programme is no longer there.”
In the communities, some of the girls who once attended DREAMS safe spaces have reportedly dropped out of school due to a lack of fees and necessities. Others are now vulnerable to early marriages and abusive relationships as families struggle to survive the worsening economic conditions. Village health workers are witnessing a gradual decline in access to sexual and reproductive health information among adolescent girls, particularly in hard-to-reach areas, because the outreach programmes have been stopped altogether. “Before, we had support for awareness campaigns, transport, and youth programmes; girls could easily access counselling and reproductive services through mobile outreach activities. Now we are trying to continue with very little support from community organisations,” said Kembo Mangena, a village health worker from Jahana in Ward 17.
Sithokozile Ncube, one of the community leaders said that one of the biggest concerns is that the silence surrounding sexual health issues may return to communities where young people had only recently become comfortable seeking help and information openly. Community leaders also fear that some of the gains made under DREAMS may be slowly reversed if rural communities are left without sustainable interventions. The programme helped reduce school dropouts and child marriages by creating strong community monitoring systems. “When a girl stopped attending school, mentors and health workers would immediately follow up. Parents became more aware of the dangers of child marriages and gender-based violence. Still, now there are gaps because many of those structures depended on donor funding,” Sithokozile Ncube said.
Zimbabwe’s Policy on Adolescent Girls
Although Zimbabwe has developed legal and policy frameworks — the National Gender Policy, the Marriages Act that criminalises child marriages, and the Education Amendment Act that promotes access to education for vulnerable children —implementation gaps remain highly visible in rural districts such as Gokwe South. Much of the delivery of adolescent sexual and reproductive health services, school programmes and community-based protection systems has continued to rely heavily on donor funding rather than sustained state investment. Local authorities and rural district structures lack dedicated budgets for welfare programmes, mobile health outreach services, and community mentorship initiatives that previously complemented DREAMS activities. The withdrawal of support has also exposed the weaknesses in coordination between national policies and grassroots implementation, especially in remote rural communities.
In many rural districts, poverty continues to push adolescent girls into unpaid domestic labour and exploitative relationships. Long distances to schools and clinics remain major barriers, especially for girls from vulnerable families. While the Zimbabwean government has repeatedly emphasised the importance of girl-child empowerment through policies such as the National Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy (2023 to 2026) and initiatives aimed at ending child marriages, the implementation in many rural areas continues to falter. Factors including limited funding, shortages of health personnel, and weak rural infrastructure, such as poor road networks, weak communication coverage, and insufficient health as well as educational facilities, pose a great challenge. In community consultation meetings, local community leaders highlighted the need for increased investment in rural education, youth services, and primary healthcare systems if the country is to sustain the progress previously supported by donor-funded programmes like DREAMS.
Yet, amid this uncertainty, communities in Gokwe South are beginning to craft their own survival strategies that are driven not by large budgets but by local solidarity and grassroots innovation. In Ward 17, a group of women formed a community savings club called Yimpilo (Life) that now assists vulnerable girls with sanitary pads, school uniforms, and examination fees. Using proceeds from small grain farming, poultry keeping, and goat-rearing projects, these women rotate support among families that are struggling to keep girls in school. “We realised that waiting for outside donors alone is dangerous and, as communities, we must start building our own solutions no matter how small they are,” said Nobukhosi Mabuya, the leader of the Yimpilo group.
Former DREAMS mentors within communities are also continuing some activities voluntarily. Under trees, at churches and in village groups during weekends, girls still gather for informal life-skills discussions on relationships, self-esteem, reproductive health, and financial survival. Though resources are scarce, mentors say that maintaining safe spaces for girls remains critical. Local youth organisations have introduced small
vocational initiatives that are aimed at reducing dependency and giving adolescent girls practical ways to earn income. Some girls are being trained in detergent making, poultry production, tailoring, and gardening projects that allow them to contribute financially to their needs while remaining in school. “These may appear like they are small community projects, but they are restoring confidence among girls, and the idea is to create local resilience so that communities do not collapse every time donor funding ends,” said Babra Manduku, a youth community organiser who works with vulnerable adolescents in Gokwe South.
Churches have also stepped up as a pillar of support. In some villages, women’s church groups are raising money to provide underprivileged adolescent girls with sanitary wear and school materials, while pastors are using community gatherings to speak openly against child marriages, gender-based violence, and sexual exploitation. Development practitioners argue that the situation in districts like Gokwe South highlights the urgent need for sustainable development models that place communities at the centre rather than relying almost entirely on external aid. For other girls in the community like Cynthia Hunyenyewa, the issue is deeply personal rather than political. “We are grateful for what DREAMS did for us, but now we need communities, leaders, and the government to continue standing with girls because our lives cannot pause when funding ends,” she said.
The future of many adolescent girls in the Gokwe South rural district remains uncertain. Yet beneath that uncertainty, the community is rallying together with village health workers walking long distances without allowances, women sharing their savings and harvests to keep girls in school, mentors volunteering their time, and communities refusing to surrender their hard-fought progress. In Gokwe South, the end of donor support may have created new hardships, but it has also forced communities to confront a difficult truth: that lasting protection for adolescent girls cannot depend on foreign funding alone. It must also grow from within the villages themselves, through collective responsibility, local leadership, and the determination to ensure that no girl’s future is abandoned simply because donor funding has disappeared.