Introduction

YASD in partnership with HeRLiberty organisation has been coordinating community engagement meetings to assess and identify key issues that affects young people and girls in accessing and demanding SRHR services in their communities in the midst of COVID -19. As part of COVID 19 recovery initiative with reflection to SRHR and gender based violence, YASD together with HeRLiberty as a lead organisation has been conducting an assessment in the three districts thus Lilongwe, Dowa and Ntchisi through Community Engagement meetings and focus group discussions. The exercise was done for three months thus May 2020- July 2020. These community engagement meetings created an opportunity for the young people and the elders to discuss issues of sexual reproductive health and rights as well as how COVID 19 has impacted the accessibility of such services. Realizing that the generation gap has been a barrier for the young people to effectively access and use the youth friendly health services, these meetings exposed to community leaders and other elders to realize that it’s high time to raise awareness and mobilise more young people to get information and services of sexual reproductive health services. These meetings were conducted to address the alarming increase of teenage and unintended pregnancies amongst young girls and also the increase of the spread of sexual transmitted infections amongst the youth.

OBJECTIVES

  • Educating and promoting the adolescents and young girls with sexual and reproductive health and rights information plus behavior change to reduce the increase of unintended pregnancies .
  • To mobilize adolescents, teenagers , young girls and boys to demand and access youth friendly health services and information in their respective areas during this period of covid-19
  • To Mobilise local leaders and community influencers to support youth led initiatives.

LESSONS LEARNT FROM DIFFERENT DISTRICTS

  1. Knowledge about Family planning and SRHR message amongst the young people and the community members
  • The community members and the young people have limited knowledge about SRHR including family planning methods. Some of them still have negative attitudes towards Family planning method. The just learnt about ways of preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS in school but then they don’t know exactly how these measures are applied in real life situations.
  1. Availability of YFHS centres and Youth access and uptake to youth friendly health services
  • In Ntchisi district , access to youth friendly health services is a big challenge .For instance , In T/A Kalumo, there is no any nearby facility that offers youth friendly health services. There is Chipokosa Youth Centre but then they don’t provide Sexual reproductive health services. The young people have to travel to the district hospital hospital of which discourages most of the youth to access these services.
  • The uptake of youth friendly health services is very low during this pandemic which contributes to the increase of teen pregnancies and also puts the lives of young people at risk of contracting STI’s.
  1. Involvement of traditional leaders and District Youth officer in promoting and mobilizing the youth to access youth friendly health services  and impart them with SRHR messages
  • From all the districts , traditional leaders and the district youth officers highlighted they are in forefront of promoting youth programs and activities that address issues SRHR .
  • Traditional leaders expressed their interest in promoting youth access to SRHR services and also make health centres become youth friendly centres.
  1. The capacity of professional young leaders to deliver SRHR information and advocate for YFHS within and outside their catchment areas
  • 85% of the young leaders that have ever been trained in issues of SRHR , proved to have strong potential to deliver and make a difference in their work. For instance, some youth leaders were able conduct community assessment and research about the problems young people experiences when accessing youth friendly health services. They were able to collect data and present the information in a formal way.

 RECOMMENDATIONS

  • Traditional leaders and the district youth officers will keep on supporting youth leaders in their initiatives of raising awareness in SRHR issues
  • Professional youth leaders will advocate for more health facilities to become youth friendly centres
  • As MaSP we can champion SRHR on a segment of Gender based violence and Youth friendly health services to promote the well-being of the youth .
  • Young people and women from rural areas to cooperate and be familiar with their CBDA’s for easy access to family planning methods

SUCCESS OF THE MEETINGS

  • We have been able to identify gaps towards youth access to SRHR amid the pandemic
  • It was a unique platform where young people discussed issues of sexual reproductive health issues in presence of the community leaders and the elders
  • Able to raise awareness and civic educate communities about SRHR information and services
  • An entry point and good platform for the young people to voice out on issues that concerns them about SRHS has been established through these Professional youth leaders and other key stakeholders