Her Voice
YDIT focuses on empowering youth to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health through education and advocacy. By engaging in activities such as workshops, community outreach, and awareness campaigns, YDIT aims to ensure that young people have access to accurate information and resources related to sexual health. Additionally, the organization works to advocate for policy changes that support the rights of young people to make choices about their bodies and health. Overall, YDIT is committed to promoting positive and healthy outcomes for youth in the area of sexual and reproductive health.
Year
2018
Project Title
SRHR Advocacy Awareness
Funding Partner
Her Voice
Sensitization and translation of the National SRHR policy.
The meeting objective was to bring around youths from the religious sector since they face a lot of challenges in accessing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) information due to limiting religious factors. Among several delimitations, peer pressure was one of the major issues affecting the youths leading to bad sexual and reproductive health choices. Informative videos were showcased and reflected on choices made by youths and brought out how bad choices can affect a person’s life. It was a real day opener as the participants were given time to reflect and they drew some lessons from these videos. The youths were very excited as they were able to identify the lessons from the videos and relate them to reality. A topic on Sexual Transmitted Infections was also taught to the youths and it reflected the reality of some of the consequences of bad choices that if the youths are not well informed or if they do not handle the decisions properly it will result in them getting infected. The meeting was also attended by 3 People with Disabilities 2 were deaf and 1 had a limp. A sign language interpreter was present and could assist in translating for the deaf. The youths requested that Youth Development Initiative Trust should also bring such activities to their church stating that the activity was very informative and they believed such an activity can benefit youths to a large extent. Youths enjoyed refreshments and entertainment after the activity.
Edutainment
The objective of this activity was to promote young people’s sexual and reproductive health rights through informative plays. To encourage the advancement of young people’s rights towards their sexual rights, this activity was held in two segments. First was the showcasing of short video clips that promote the sexual and reproductive health rights of young people. Several videos were shown to the youths and shed light on equipping youths with relevant SRHR information. This segment was carried out interactively to increase young people’s participation. Second was a soccer match which was played between Baptist Church and United Methodist Church soccer teams. This was done to strengthen the relationship that had been forged between the two denominations during the first segment. The match was an intriguing experience, evidenced by a one-sided match where The United Methodist Church was thrashed five goals to nil.
Engagement meeting
The objectives of the engagement meeting with local health departments and committees were to lobby and advocate for the provision of friendly SRHR information and service centers to the community. This platform was organized to present the activities that had been done so far towards the project objectives and tailor-made recommendations towards the gaps that had been found when implementing the previous activities. The activity was graced by influential health organizations, in the bid to suggest recommendations that should be adopted by organizations to advance the sexual rights of young people. Recommendations to SRHR for young people included (i) Increasing access to youth and disability-appropriate information and services (ii) the urgent need to assess the scale of sexual violence and ensure support mechanisms in place to respond accordingly (iii) Removing financial barriers to SRH services (iv) Increasing data and research on people with disabilities to inform policy change and interventions. Youth Development Initiative Trust was urged to carry out more SRHR empowerment activities within the religious sector, often sidelined from major SRHR streamlines.
