Copper Rose Zambia under the Youth Care project conducted a series of exciting activities which included training of peer educators in Lusaka and Copperbelt provinces, outreach activities, a church leaders workshop and a You(th) Care kick off meeting in Tanzania.
The peer educators training was conducted simultaneously in Lusaka and Copperbelt provinces with the aim of equipping the peer educators with knowledge and skills in adolescent health.
The trained peer educators will be working on the youth care project to ensure vulnerable adolescents and young people benefit from a more supportive policy and community environment and a strengthened health system, enabling them to practice self-care to promote and maintain their Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights, access family planning and prevent HIV and AIDS.
The peer educators who attended the training were drawn from various health facilities which include Chipata level 1 hospital, Ngombe, Mtendere and Mt Makuru in Lusaka province. Chambishi, Kawama and Luangwa clinics were the selected facilities on the Copperbelt. A total of 50 peer educators were trained, 25 in Lusaka and 25 in the Copperbelt province respectively.
The five day training was facilitated by the Ministry of Health trainers who ensured that the peer educators were fully equipped with the right set of information.
Peer Educators participating in the recap session in Kitwe on the Copperbelt.
A few days later, the peer educators hit the ground with confidence to interact and share the knowledge they acquired during the training. Several community outreach sessions have since been conducted in Lusaka, Chilanga, Kitwe and Kalulushi districts and we managed to reach out to a total of 2534 adolescent and young people Some of the topics covered by the peer educators during the sessions were; effects of drug and substance abuse, safe sexual practices and HIV prevention. Some of the benefits mentioned to the young people were: prevention of unwanted pregnancies and contraction of STI’s.
One of the young people from the community who decided to remain anonymous thanked Copper Rose Zambia for reaching out to communities in that programmes are very educative adding that delaying sexual debut has a direct effect on stopping early marriages and unwanted pregnancies.
Some peer educators during the community outreach sessions in Lusaka’s Chilanga town
We also attended a five days consortium meeting in Dar es Salaam Tanzania, to kick off the You(th) Care project which is generally aimed at promoting Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Self-care and HIV prevention. The youth care project is being implemented in Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya, over a period of four years. The meeting was attended by AIDSFONDS, Y+ Global, PATA, ARASA and in-country partners from Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya. The consortium meeting in Dar es Salaam Tanzania, took place from 20th to 24th June.
Copper Rose Zambia CEO Dr. Natasha Kaoma giving a presentation during a the consortium meeting in Tanzania
