Today we had a full programme with 10 local organisations from Kenya to Indonesia, sharing their experiences. The sessions focused on two areas: Prevention for Youth and Gender. Below we highlighted some of them.
Knowing is not enough! Empowering youth with Life Skills
Phillip Chikasa from HODI (Zambia) involved the audience in a short theatre play. The play was about a sugar daddy trying to ‘score’ a young vulnerable girl. To his surprise the girl resisted to his sexual advances. As the girl was empowered with life skills, she knew how hold her stand and say NO. Based on the play, Phillip started an discussion about life skills programmes and how to get the most out of them. The overall conclusion of the session was: knowing is not enough, life skills are vital!
Hear our Voices! Meaningful involvement of young people
There is overwhelming evidence that the participation of young people leads to better outcomes for projects, programmes and organisations. Milly Siebrits of the South African Scout Association (SASA) presented some differented cases to the participants. The organisations presented in the case were assessed in two groups. Usng the STOP AIDS NOW! Youth Participation (SYP) Model the child participation in each organisation was assessed and discussed. Subsequently areas further improvement of youth participation were determined. During the discussions the participants concluded that many organisations give youth the room to speak up, however the listening often proves to be very poor. After the exercise Milly shared her own experiences of involving youth at all levels, including management. Within SASA they are working hard towards the participation at all levels of management: in district boards, provincial boards and the national board.
Improving the quality of SRHR and HIV programmes for youth with the Planning & Support Tool
Bertha Mukome of the Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT) from Zimbabwe started of with a ‘rap’ on SRHR and youth. An inspiring and funny start, that attracted the attention of people passing by. Afterwards she introduced us to the Planning & Support tool, a useful tool that can help you to improve SRHR and HIV programmes for youth. Bertha showed how to assess the quality of your programmes on each of the following 6 levels: 1. involvement, 2. needs assessment/situational analysis, 3. objectives, 4. evidence-based intervention design, 5. adoption and implementation and 6. monitoring & evaluation. She underlined that in order to get funding for the assessment and implement outcomes one should open up the dialogue with donors. In the end it is all about a better result of the project, which is in their favour as well!
Female condom programming in South Africa
Tian Johnson from the Thohoyandou Victim Empowered Programme (TVEP) showed us in a very interactive way how to use the Female condom, the different types of Female Condoms, as well as the challenges that exist in accessing the female condom for many women in South Africa. Tian convinced us that the Female Condom is more than a technical tool, but can and should be seen as something which can be used for sexual pleasure. He also explained that compared to the male condom, access to female condoms is very limited and the cost of the female condom is still high due to limited competition in the Female Condom production. Against this background, Tian called upon all participants to become ambassadors in promoting the use of Female Condom and improved access to the Female condom as an empowering tool for women to protect themselves and their partners in HIV prevention and unwanted pregnancies.
Sex for fish. Dealing with gender imbalances: a good practice from the lake Victoria district
Harun Kodiaga and Hellen Otieno from C-Meda and Women fighting AIDS in Kenya (WOFAK) talked about gender imbalances in the HIV epidemic in the Lake Victoria District. In this district of Kenya, women involved in fish selling are put at risk of HIV. While waiting for the fishermen to sell the fish to them, they are asked for sexual favours in exchange. If they refuse this or try to walk away from this abuse, they risk ending up with no fish to sell. The risk exposure does not stop here. When they have bought the fish from the fishermen and want to go to town to sell the fish, they are again sexually harassed by the bus drivers. This gender imbalance which makes women dependent and subordinate to men put both women and men at risk of contracting HIV and other sexual and reproductive health problems. C-Meda in collaboration with the STOP AIDS NOW! Gender project addresses this problem by training women and girls on life skills and provides them with behaviour change communication. They also educate men on the use of alternative conflict resolution strategies to reduce violation of women’s right and create awareness on gender issues and HIV/AIDS through existing Anti AIDS or Health Clubs in Primary schools.
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