adminTrudence Mangachena Cool Lifestyle Writer
THE Youth Advocates Zimbabwe (YAZ) recently held a club leaders training workshop at Utano Centre in Chitungwiza to kick- start their Young People We Care programme sponsored by Unicef through the National Aids Council.
About 36 participants made up of only young people from the community were trained. They were recruited out of the six clubs in Chitungwiza that has got 35 members each.
Pride Shonhiwa, who is the project officer at YAZ, said after the training they now expect more training to take place in the clubs.
“Since we have trained a total of 36 club members from the community we expect them to go back to their clubs to train fellow members since we are there to do capacity building for volunteers believing in those we have trained to disseminate the information to their fellows,’’ he said. “Basically, the clubs are grouped as young ladies in sex work, students (Speciss College), school-leavers, Chitungwiza Junior Council and young people from the United Methodist Church ready to make a difference.
“It all goes to say we are working with young people from different sectors with one goal at the end to bring them together regardless of where they are coming from through peer support in times of need and HIV awareness programmes to the community.
“Our goal is to provide a social context in which prevailing social norms are discussed, questioned and reassessed by creating an atmosphere conducive to changes in social norms as well as in individual sexual behaviour.
“Contributing to the nationwide efforts to reduce HIV and Aids and its effects to youths and the community,’’ said Shonhiwa.
“Our objectives are reducing the risk of HIV infection among young people, create a supportive environment for addressing Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) and issues for young people not forgetting to nurture community and leadership skills amongst young people by engaging policy makers on issues affecting them.
“Moreso there are key activities involved such as community and national policy dialogues, IEC materials production and dissemination, use of technology to promote SRHR/HIV like Facebook, call centre, SMS and mobile cinemas. Community volunteerism outreach to support the local council through clean-up campaigns and visits to youth-headed households infected or affected by HIV contributing towards achieving MDGs.
“Young African girls are more vulnerable to infection due to widespread gender inequality resulting in lack of education and employment opportunities hence they resort to selling sex to earn a living, putting them at increased risk of HIV and also young people engage in behaviours that put them at risk of HIV due to peer pressure, curiosity or just natural recklessness without realising the consequences,’’ he said.
YAZ director Mr Tatenda Songore said their project has been short-listed among the 45 projects by the International Jury of the 8th Unesco Youth Forum amongst a total of 1 532 projects from all regions of the world.
“We are fortunate enough to have been short-listed among the 45 projects by Unesco after being an award recipient to the 2011 MTV Staying Alive Award and also the Newsday People’s Choice Junior Citizen Award.’’
The clubs are said to be working closely with community role models as mentors and patrons to increase knowledge sharing and sustainability.
Online Reporter