Viva! The Africa Regional Youth Programme moves ahead
31 August 2005
Partners in the Alliance’s Regional Youth Programme met for the first time in June at a workshop to share good practice, identify challenges to HIV prevention with young people and plan future work.
The Regional Youth Programme will run for three years in the high HIV-prevalence countries of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It builds on the work of Alliance partners, Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia and Young Happy Healthy and Safe, in the Eastern Province of Zambia, aiming to improve the sexual, reproductive and psychosocial health of young people aged 10 to 24. Programme activities are geared towards reducing young people's vulnerability to unsafe sexual activity and increasing their access to social support, education, and services.
Workshop participants used community-based, participatory approaches to explore challenges and identify good practice that could be used to expand and intensify their work. Many challenges appeared to be common across the three countries. Participants reported that although culture, religion and tradition were sometimes strengthening the response to the epidemic, they were also creating significant barriers to effective prevention work.
Zambian participants are concerned that their prevention work is being hampered by confused messages and difficulties in obtaining condoms. Pastor Kenneth Siwale of the National Cultural Peace Workers Team explained how he has been using his position in the church to normalise condoms among his congregation and to work with other religious leaders in the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia.
Attitudes towards gender and sexuality were also shared. Inocencio Dewasse from the Ministry of Education in Mozambique explained how they are using drama to tackle inappropriate relationships between young female students and their older male teachers. Participants from the Alliance’s partner organisations in Zambia who have been working in school environments also shared tools for exploring issues of sexuality with pupils and teachers.
Participants felt particularly under-skilled in the area of creating a better environment for HIV prevention through policy and advocacy work. Together, participants were able to strategise around alternative advocacy tools and ways of influencing that built on their existing strengths and knowledge.
The workshop ended with the creation of a set of in- and cross-country plans, and a report will be made available over the next few months.
