Young men and women, especially the vulnerable and youths with high-risk behaviours, face several challenges in accessing sexual and reproductive health services. Joint collaborative efforts offer opportunities to tackle these challenges.
Fear for HIV-positive results. Unfriendly attitudes in health facilities, Fear of loss of opportunities like education. Cultural myths related to sexual and reproductive health. These are some of the opinions from dialogues Community Focus International held with youth groups in Lira city. They are given as reasons that hinder young people from accessing appropriate sexual and reproductive health services.
Strategic and Impactful partnerships
In collaboration with GLOFORD, with support from PLAN International, Community Focus International is implementing the Safe and Inclusive Cities program in Lira City. The project goal is that children, adolescents and young people are safe and influence decision-making in resilient communities that respect their rights and offer equal opportunities for all regardless of gender.
The project targets vulnerable, high-risk behaviour adolescents and youths living in the wards of Baronger, Bazaar, Kakooge, Barogole and Teso Ward. The creation and functionalization of safe spaces in health facilities and communities for young people to access information, share and learn from individual experiences remains key to helping young people access sexual and reproductive health services.
CFI therefore collaborated with health facilities to conduct community outreaches to make the services more accessible to youths within the city. The outreaches involved health talks, HIV Counselling and Testing services and family planning services at the various wards of the health facilities. The facilities engaged were Ober, Adyel, Ongica and Ayago health centers.
Making contributions
CFI reached 353 youths through the community health outreaches conducted and donated 6 (six) wheelchairs to the health facilities through the District Health Office. This happened over the last three months based on recommendations from a joint assessment of the youth-friendly spaces in the health centers in Lira City.
The interventions were all geared towards making the services provided by the health facilities more accessible from the premises well into the communities.
