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Empowering Sexual Health Education

When Innocent Grant, an MSPH student in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, was 20, he watched a young woman die from an unsafe abortion. 

Grant, who lived in Tanzania, was one of the youngest students in his class to begin clinical medical studies within a hospital. During his training, Grant was placed in a gynecology ward where he met the young woman: a bright college student who presented with severe abdominal pain and abnormal discharge. 

As Grant took her history, he learned that the woman had come to the hospital after seeking a “street abortion.” In Tanzania, abortion is illegal, leaving women to seek care from unlicensed providers. 

When the young woman began to fall ill 48 hours later, she returned to the person who conducted the abortion. That provider conducted the abortion twice more. The third time, he perforated her uterus. By the time she arrived at the hospital—a week after her initial procedure—the damage and infection from unsterile equipment had set in. She passed away a few days later. 

“She died lonely, without any support, because of the fear and stigma around sexual relationships among adolescents and young adults,” said Grant, now 28. “That still sticks in my mind.”  

"I felt like I was directly helping and preventing what I was seeing in the hospitals by educating young people and communities on the southern coast of Tanzania"

Her case was one of many unsafe abortions that Grant saw in his time at the gynecology ward—and the long-term effects of limited abortion access stuck with him. 

Since his first year in college, Grant had worked with a sexual health club at his college. But after his experiences in the gynecological ward, he used his knowledge to promote conversations. 

Grant traveled to primary and secondary school and suburban communities around Mtwara, Mikindani municipal and rural communities around Lindi Region and Masasi district. There, he worked to dispel myths and answer questions about sexual health.

“I felt like I was directly helping and preventing what I was seeing in the hospitals by educating young people and communities on the southern coast of Tanzania,” Grant said. 

Grant applied via video essay to attend the 2018 International Conference of Family Planning in Rwanda and was accepted to present on the importance of contraceptive education in Mtwara in Tanzania. He also attended the 2019 Women Deliver Conference in Canada and the 2020 Social and Behavioral Change Communication Summit for Youth Champions in Morocco. 

“I interacted with a lot of people from Johns ��ѻ��ý,” Grant said. “It has an impact that is seen and felt globally.”

Inspired by the people he met, Grant applied to the Master of Science in Public Health program in 2024. He was accepted to the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, with a concentration in health education and communication, and began his studies in August 2024.

"The School provides a lot of opportunities. There is no doubt that it is the number one school of public health"

Grant now works as a student research assistant with the School’s William H. Gates Sr. Institute for Population and Reproductive Health to continue promoting sexual education. He is expanding on his work in Tanzania by helping develop a framework of sexual well-being and gender equity alongside partner organizations, such as the Pleasure Project. 

Grant is also involved with planning the 2025 International Conference of Family Planning in Colombia to promote diverse young leaders globally.

“The School provides a lot of opportunities,” Grant said. “There is no doubt that it is the number one school of public health.”

After earning his MSPH, Grant plans to pursue a PhD at the School. He hopes to work within the NGO sector in the family planning field and push for sexual health programs in the Global South.

“Public health is complex, and in approaching public health problems, we need a lot of collaborations,” Grant said. “So let’s go out and listen more.”