Lubuto was awarded a grant from Templeton World Charity Foundation in 2020 focused on character development and adolescent health. The grant focuses on evaluating the impact of traditional storytelling on improving sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education outcomes. The project combines LubutoMentoring—an arts-based character development program that uses traditional storytelling and drama with the widely-used, evidence-based Stepping Stones SRH curriculum, to create a revised curriculum that leverages character strengths as key components in promoting positive SRH outcomes for adolescents. 352 youth are targeted to participate in the study, which will be supported by our academic partners from American University: Professor Anthony Ahrens, Chair of the AU Psychology Department, and Millicent Curlee, Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology.

Each week of the program will focus on one or more stories, ranging from folklore to biography to literature, that exemplify a different character strength—which will include honesty, responsibility, self-empowerment, courage, perseverance, self-confidence, self-discipline, purpose, friendship, giving, integrity and creativity. For instance, the story of Nelson Mandela along with Na Mwenge and Her Word (Bemba folklore) will be used to illustrate integrity.

The hybrid approach combining cultural values with an evidence-based SRH curriculum will allow for topics like STIs, family planning, relationships and gender-based violence to be addressed in a way that is both culturally understandable and engaging. It is our goal that the program will both increase knowledge, awareness, and practice of character strengths in the target population; and lead to higher rates of attitude and behavior change on key SRH indicators when compared to other approaches.