Country highlights from half way - Day 5

5th of September - that's half way! Young people in different countries were busy with numerous activities and  also found the time to share updates and photos - enjoy reading them and stay tuned for more :) 

Pakistan

Blaze Youth Development Organization from Pakistan has been conducted an awareness rising campaign in District Kot Addu Punjab Pakistan. The basic purpose of the campaign was to raise the awareness of young people about sexual reproductive health and rights topics. The young activists went from door to door in the rural area of the District and discussed with their peers about the campaign.

Mr. Asad Bukhari conducted a question-answer session among the almost 50 young people about their sexual health. Mostly youngsters answered that they have very limited information so they were provide detailed information. The feedback received was satisfactory and they requested more awareness raising sessions to be held in their community because they are very useful and very needed.

Kazakhstan

For the 5th of September, the main activity was leaded by Y-PEER Focal Point Dina Amirova and young activist Aziz Ablayev. They went and hold informative peer education sessions with several groups of students from South Kazakhstan Pharmaceutical Academy. The topics they approached included time management, improving self-management skills, multi-tasking and other useful skills as well as advocacy and how young people can advocate for their rights.

Lebanon

"Kteib w Ness" Club established one great discussion group! They used a new approach and started the group discussion after showing several videos that touched delicate topics such as sexual abuse and sexual violence. The facilitated discussion that followed involved the audience and many participants openly shared their views and opinions, although the topics are often considered taboo in the community. Almost 40 young people as well as their parents actively participated in the debate. 

Mongolia

The first National Theatre Based Techniques for Peer Education Training took place from 04 - 07 September 2012. The training was organized  in collaboration with Red Cross Mongolia. The young activists were involved in translating the existing Y-PEER manual into their own language and used it as a main toolkit.

Participants include 16 young people from different countryside and 9 from Y-PEER committee group and member organizations in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia.

The participants are acquiring basic knowledge including theatre – based peer education methods related to prevention of HIV&AIDS and SRHR topics. Trainers’ team has invited Ms. Zolzaya, Coordinator of ‘Young women for change’ as the facilitator for the human rights, sex & gender and sexual orientation sessions. Also, Mr. Tuvshinbayar, the Executive Director of Royal HD television and the professor of University of Art and Movie was invited as a facilitator for the sessions about artistry, character creation and stagecraft. Also, Odontuya, the Y-PEER Focal Pont in Charge and National Coordinator and Uyanga, the advanced facilitator have facilitated several sessions.

Because no similar training has been conducted before in Mongolia, all participants are very excited about it as they are acquiring new information and new methods they can further use in their work.

As this is a new thing, the training attracted the attention of Royal HD TV, Olloo TV, PPTV, Sansar Hd TV who showed their interest, came to the workshop and broadcasted the workshop process.

Algeria

On 5^th of September, Yacine, peer educator of Y-PEER Algeria presented two wonderful pieces of poetry.

In the first one, he talked about stigma and discrimination that young people living with HIV suffer from. He advocated for a mobilization of the community to treat PLHIV just like anyone else because we are all same and HIV can no longer be a reason to put innocent people apart.

In the second one, he spoke about youth voices and meaningful participation, empowerment and leadership of young people.

You can find both poetries on these links:

http://ypeerdz.blogspot.com/2012/09/we-are-all-same.html

http://ypeerdz.blogspot.com/2012/09/youth-will-lead-way.html

Also, 10DoA Campaign in Algeria got good media coverage! Horizons Newspaper published an article talking about the campaign and its targets.

Link: http://ypeerdz.blogspot.com/2012/09/article-de-presse-horizons.html

Azerbaijan

For the 10 DoA Campaign, Y-PEER Azerbaijan in cooperation with FLEX Alumni Grants Program of American Councils, “Hilton Baku” Hotel and Himalaya Herbals Natural Cosmetic Company organized a 5-day Theatre – based Training on Peer Education, HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health and Rights.

The training aimed to build the capacity of 20 local young people to plan and deliver high quality theatre-based trainings in the field of Peer Education, HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health and Rights. 

The course finalized with a theatre performance, prepared by participants.

Among the theatre performance attendees were high level representatives of US Embassy in Azerbaijan and representatives of various NGOs and youth groups. The event was finalized by certificates awarding ceremony.

Now equipped with new skills and inspiration young people are ready to put the gained knowledge in practice!

Turkey

Y-PEER Local Samsun Team organized a meeting with Deputy Mayor of Samsun -Şeref Aydın to explain 10 DoA and its messages. They had a productive talk and Mr Şeref Aydın promised that he will followup the process of meaningful youth participation. 

Ankara Local Y-PEER team opened a booth to give information to young people about SRH, youth-friendly health services and SRH education in schools in the capital city of Turkey, Ankara in Kuğulu Park where is one of the most crowded parks of the city. Thru this out-reach activity, their target group was over 1500 young people.

China

Young people keep on sharing updates from different days of the 10 Days of Activism Campaign - check them out! 

Kazakhstan

A policy level advocacy activity was initiated by active volunteers and peer educators of Y-PEER Kazakhstan met the president of the Civic Alliance in Kazakhstan in city of Shymkent. They discussed the possible ways of involving more youth to the decision making level. Klara Tulendieva, the president has been working in Civic Alliance for more than 10 years. She shared her experience and gave some advice on how to strengthen the network and bring more youth to work, build more youth led NGOs. Altogether 15 young people were mobilize to organize and participate in the meeting.

Philippines

With the support of the Local Government of Barangay Mintal, Davao City thru Kagawad Fe Bargamento and in cooperation of the office of Councilor Bernie Al-ag, Chairman on Committee on Health and Sanitation, Davao City Council and with the assistance of JR GAD in technical support, we were able to motivate, inform and reach out young people both schooled and out-of-school of the said Barangay on issues concerning their health. JR GAD Program Manager, Carulus Rai Lantion conducted the STI, HIV/AIDS Orientation and verified Sex and Gender within the scope of knowledge of the participants. January Cutin led the open forum for some issues reserved from participants' mind. He utilized the social networking podium to be the center of young people's expression of thoughts like twitter and facebook. The said training was held at Session Hall, Barangay Hall of Mintal, Davao City Philippines.

As a result, the Supreme Student Government of Mintal Comprehensive Highschool pledged to initiate re-echo and public symposium on their campus to deliver services to the studentry. The pledge was supported by their Adviser.

Bulgaria

We have organized a local 2 days training in Shumen Town with the volunteers of club “Rebels” Varna and Bulgarian Red Cross Youth Shumen. The topic were“Project managing and development” and “Interactive methods for being a good Peer Educator” and “Why am I a Peer Educator“ . This training’s main purpose was to challenge the young volunteers to start making bigger projects, which can help in their own and their club’s development. It was combined with very useful exercises, which gave the volunteers a clear idea of how they can make a successful project. The main point of the second topic was to make the volunteers realize why they have chosen to be Peer Educators and what do they want to succeed in this area in the foreseeable future. The facilitators were representative of Y-PEER Bulgaria; Adrian Yordanov (FPC), Stefan Bogdanov (FP), Preslava Ivanova (Youth Coordinator), Paulina Kaloyaniva (PE).

Uzbekistan

An Info session was held in Uzbekistan, called: “Healthy Youth”. It was conducted for students from 8 and 9 grades. During the session students get information about 10 DoA Campaign, Y-PEER Network and basic information about HIV/AIDS. At the end of activity volunteers have distributed leaflets about STI and HIV/AIDS.

Oman

Peer education workshop was organized at Buraimi in Oman in which 30 young and adult people between the age of 14-32 participated. As an outcome, a group of young people was also formed in this north part of the country. It is a challenge to speak about sexual and reproductive health in this kind of conservative society but the young people worked successfully to reduce this barrier.

Moldova

In the capital of Moldova and Drochia district, street activities were organized benifiting around 20 young people by distributing local newsletter of Y-PEER national network and brochures and flyers about Y-PEER and SRHR. People were interacted about young people’s issues  and problems and answers to queries were also resolved during the activity. Always open and able to answer, we have talked to a lot of young people that want to know more about Y-PEER or to become a part of it.

Morocco

The ongoing Training of Trainers on Peer education in Morocco successfully concluded itsfifth day. The activities included the brainstorming technique, Role Playing, and the case study. The main goal was to give young animators analytical skills and techniques and facilitation skills.

Sudan

A review meeting on beyond ICPD+20 was organized in Sudan. The meeting was attended by young peer educators affiliated to Y-PEER Sudan’s partners.The meeting shed light on the ICPD + 20 agenda and how the Sudan government is taking action about the ICPD. UNFPA CO supported by providing logistic support for the meeting in which 20 people participated. The discussion included the strategicaction  plan for youth and how the youth know about their available right. Participants shared their opinion on creating partnership between researchers and statistical youth.

Posted in: 10DoA,2012 Country Highlights,Algeria,Azerbaijan,Bulgaria,China,Kazakhstan,Lebanon,Mongolia,Pakistan,Philippines,Sudan,Turkey,Uzbekistan