Buse holds health expo

Fungai Lupande Mashonaland Central Bureau
Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE) recently held a health expo for students to promote their interface with sexual reproductive health (SRH) service providers.

BUSE’s coordinator campus life and student development programmes officer Mrs Dorothy Murasi said the expo inspired the utilisation of SRH services by students and exposed college authorities, particularly from Student Affairs Department to models of youth friendly service packaging.

“The health expo was a partnership between BUSE and SayWhat,” she said. “SayWhat is an organisation which promotes sexual and reproductive health education in tertiary institutions.

“The expo ran under the theme “My Health, My Choice, My Responsibility”. The objectives were to create an interface between students and a broad range of SRH service providers, inspire utilisation of SRH services by students and expose college authorities, particularly from Student Affairs Department to models of youth friendly service packaging.

“The theme of the expo sought to stimulate students to make responsible choices on their health that includes HIV Testing and Counselling, Contraception and Gender Based Violence Services.

“The Expo was meant to complement University health services by providing a platform to encourage students, especially those who do not utilise services on campus for various reasons, to do so freely.”

Mrs Murasi said male students were not left out as SayWhat’s Mugota and Web for Life conducted SRH dialogues with students.

“Mugota is an all-male student movement focusing on issues affecting the boy child while females do likewise through the Web for Life,” she said. “Students appreciated the Health Expo as it exposed them to a varied choice of SRH service providers to choose from.

“The health expo is an intervention under the Action 4 Choice Project currently being run by SayWhat with the goal of increasing student’s access to sexuality information and education to strengthen their life skills for them to utilise GBV, Contraception and HIV services.”

Population Services Zimbabwe, Population Services International, National Aids Council and the Zimbabwe Republic Police Victim Friendly Unit also participated in the expo.