he Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) launched a training program aimed at enhancing the capacity of youth-led and youth-serving organizations to advance Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) among young people in Zimbabwe, and My Age Zimbabwe took part.
The program is part of the bigger vision of seeing young people’s voices inform SRHR policies, programmes, and financing.
The training provided a platform for the interaction of the youth organizations, experience exchange, and the development of strategies for responding to key SRHR issues at the community level.
Amplify Change is funding the “Amplifying Youth Voice: Advancing SRHR for Young People in Zimbabwe” project, which aims to create a context where the health needs of young people become the priority.
The project targets the Bubi, Mangwe, Masvingo, and Bulawayo districts with youth advocacy that will result in tangible change in SRHR service delivery.
The activities center on capacity development for the youth-led organizations to enhance their ability for SRHR advocacy, ongoing training on emerging SRHR issues regularly via online sessions, and developing forums for interaction among the youth, policymakers, and community leaders.
These include teenage pregnancy, mental health, and drug abuse in the city of Bulawayo, high levels of out-of-school youth and risky circumcision practices in Bubi, low SRHR literacy across vulnerable communities and non-privacy of health facilities in Masvingo, and gender-based violence, poverty-driven sex work, and lack of services in Mangwe.
The program highlighted youth advocacy, with a focus on the reality that the youth are spearheading the change.
They were called upon to advocate for SRHR education and accessible services, facilitate peer-to-peer information sharing, utilize community platforms for advocating for policy reform, and collaborate with stakeholders for inclusive, youth-friendly policies.
The CWGH training is the beginning of a long-term advocacy campaign.
With continuous capacity building and strategic alliances, youth organizations will be the drivers of a future with accessible, inclusive, and adequately funded SRHR services.
