Young people need to be in charge of their own health. To ensure that this happens, “listen to our opinions, give us a voice, and also provide us with those spaces so that we will be able to advocate for our own issues because we are the experts of our own lives”, states Merci Niyibeshaho of Y+ Kenya. Watch her compelling message in the video below!
“Young people are faced with most health challenges in sexual and reproductive health services, new HIV infections, and mental health”
“Currently, young people are the ones faced with the most health challenges that we have right now globally. That is in terms of sexual and reproductive health services, increasing new HIV infections, and even mental health. This is why it is important that young people take responsibilities of their own health and lives to ensure that we are accountable for our own health, we are responsible and we own it in general. Also it is important to ensure that we take lead because we are the ones to know the challenges we are facing, where the problem is and even the solution to these challenges, because we are the experts of our own lives. To ensure that this happens, listen to our opinions, give us a voice, and also provide us with those spaces so that we will be able to advocate for our own issues because we are the experts of our own lives.”
About YouthWise
The YouthWise project aims to amplify the voices of young people living with HIV in Kenya and Malawi to enable them to practice self-care and fulfil their sexual and reproductive health and rights needs. YouthWise is a youth- and women-led project, implemented by Y+ Global, Y+ Kenya and Y+ Malawi which are networks of young people living with HIV, AYARHEP (Ambassador for Youth and Adolescent Reproductive Health Programmes) in Kenya and the Coalition of Women Living with HIV and AIDS (COWLHA) in Malawi.
There is a high need to improve treatment outcomes and quality of life for adolescents and young people living with HIV. YouthWise aims to amplify the voices of young people living with HIV in Kenya and Malawi to enable them to practice self-care and fulfil their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) needs.
New UNAIDS report: Key populations continue to be neglected in most HIV programmes
New UNAIDS report: Key populations continue to be neglected in most HIV programmes
Figures from the new UNAIDS report ‘The Urgency of Now – AIDS at a Crossroads’, published prior to the 25th International AIDS Conference taking place in Germany this week, show that the AIDS response is making little progress globally. For the first time in the history of the HIV pandemic, more new infections are occurring outside sub-Saharan Africa than within. Three regions are experiencing rising numbers of new HIV infections: Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa. People from key populations and their sex partners continue to be neglected in most HIV programmes.
Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges: Empowering Diversity and Youth Participation in Indonesia
Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges: Empowering Diversity and Youth Participation in Indonesia
The impact of barriers experienced by young people with diverse gender and sexuality backgrounds in Indonesia emerges in the context of issues of human rights fulfillment and meaningful engagement in health and legal services. Discriminatory regulations and inhospitable services for young people of diverse genders and sexualities place them in a more vulnerable position to higher HIV infection rates, and criminalisation.