Bringing HIV and sexual and reproductive health interventions together
28 July 2006
The Family Planning Association of Malawi has joined Young, Happy, Health and Safe in Zambia and Youth for a Child in Christ as a new lead partner in the Alliance’s Regional Youth Programme. Together they will strengthen the Alliance’s strategy to bring together HIV and sexual and reproductive health interventions.
The Family Planning Association of Malawi has expertise in sexual and reproductive health with young people. It has been working in rural and urban areas with sex workers and street vendors, as well as mobilising stakeholders in rural communities to create enabling environments for young people’s sexual and reproductive health.
Lead partners in the Regional Youth Programme link to a local network of NGOs and CBOs working with young people and aim to expand a comprehensive community response to young people’s vulnerability to HIV through sharing knowledge, expertise, models and materials. They mobilise communities in each country using participatory learning and action methods. This involves young people, aged 10–24, analysing their situation, including the social, economic, political and cultural factors that affect their vulnerability, and planning activities to address them.
Community activities are currently being planned with the communities in each country. In the coming year, programme activities will include working with male and female traditional counsellors, who socialise young people at puberty, to adapt their teachings to include key sexual and reproductive health and HIV messages, gender issues and life-skills. The Family Planning Association of Malawi and Young, Happy, Health and Safe will develop a package of learning materials for the traditional counsellors that will include tapes of songs and stories, pictures and key messages in the local language, Chichewa.
The three Regional Youth Programme partners will also work with theatre practitioners from the three countries to develop a guide on the use of theatre techniques for life-skills, positive attitudes and behaviours, reduction of stigma, community action, and advocacy. They will also develop learning materials for peer educators on sexual and reproductive health and life-skills for wider distribution.
