Ngutulu Kagwero (agents of change): study design of a participatory comic pilot study on sexual violence prevention and post-rape clinical care with refugee youth in a humanitarian setting in Uganda.

ABSTRACT

With over 1.4 million refugees, Uganda is Sub-Saharan Africa's largest refugee-hosting nation. Bidi Bidi, Uganda's largest refugee settlement, hosts over 230,000 residents. There is a dearth of evidence-based sexual violence prevention and post-rape clinical care interventions in low- and middle-income humanitarian contexts tailored for refugee youth. Graphic medicine refers to juxtaposing images and narratives, often through using comics, to convey health promotion messaging. Comics can offer youth-friendly, low-cost, scalable approaches for sexual violence prevention and care. Yet there is limited empirical evaluation of comic interventions for sexual violence prevention and post-rape clinical care. This paper details the study design used to develop and pilot test a participatory comic intervention focused on sexual violence prevention through increasing bystander practices, reducing sexual violence stigma, and increasing post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) knowledge with youth aged 16-24 and healthcare providers in Bidi Bidi. Participants took part in a single-session peer-facilitated workshop that explored social, sexual, and psychological dimensions of sexual violence, bystander interventions, and post-rape clinical care. In the workshop, participants completed a participatory comic book based on narratives from qualitative data conducted with refugee youth sexual violence survivors. This pilot study employed a one-group pre-test/post-test design to assess feasibility outcomes and preliminary evidence of the intervention's efficacy. Challenges included community lockdowns due to COVID-19 which resulted in study implementation delays, political instability, and attrition of participants during follow-up surveys. Lessons learned included the important role of youth facilitation in youth-centred interventions and the promise of participatory comics for youth and healthcare provider engagement for developing solutions and reducing stigma regarding SGBV. The Ngutulu Kagwero (Agents of change) project produced a contextually and age-tailored comic intervention that can be implemented in future fully powered randomized controlled trials to determine effectiveness in advancing sexual violence prevention and care with youth in humanitarian contexts.