Youth Grants

Project dates: 1999 - present

Themes: HIV/AIDS/Youth, Gender & Sexuality, Capacity Building, Community Mobilization

• Overview
• Objectives
• Activities
• Outputs
• Impact
• Unique Features
• Future Plans
• Partners

Overview

Four youth organizations are currently implementing a variety of youth-centered activities that focus on sexual reproductive health (RH) and HIV/AIDS education for adolescents. The interventions seek to increase knowledge and therefore positively affect behaviors and attitudes among adolescents, ages 14-24, both in and out of school. Africa Alive!, a regional project with chapters in seven countries, uses music and entertainment to empower youth to make a difference in their individual and community response to HIV/AIDS. Youth Media (YM) produces "Trendsetters," a youth-produced and youth-focused newspaper that addresses adolescent RH concerns. Youth Activist Organization (YAO) works to make adolescent RH information accessible to Zambian youth by empowering them with life skills through various interventions that are youth-friendly. Africa Directions also works to improve the education of HIV/AIDS prevention strategies through receiving recreation and information simultaneously.

Objectives

Africa Alive!

• Build capacity and sustainability of the Africa Alive! National Working Group.
• Develop a fundraising strategy.
• Promote Africa Alive! in Zambia.
• Advocate for HIV/AIDS prevention issues for youth in Zambia.
• Strengthen and improve collaboration and networks among member organizations.

YM

• Encourage youth who are not sexually active to delay sexual initiation and encourage those who are sexually active to use condoms and practice periodic abstinence.
• Promote abstinence.
• Increase knowledge of family planning methods among the 14-24 age group.
• Equip young people with skills to negotiate for safer sex.
• Equip young people with skills to distinguish between healthy and abusive or exploitative relationships.
• Encourage youth to be goal oriented.

YAO

• Increase young people's knowledge of sexual and reproductive health in order to promote safer sex and improve their skill in using condoms.
• Empower youth by providing them with facts about their own bodies and how to take care of themselves, and equipping them with life skills such as decision making, goal setting, and self esteem building.
• Help parents and their children to communicate about issues concerning reproductive health and family planning.
• Encourage youth to seek youth-friendly services such as counseling, information, and treatment, and motivate them to promote healthy sexual behavior among their peers.
• Advocate for the acknowledgment of young adult reproductive health rights at the national level.

Africa Directions

• The Africa Directions/Bauze community youth center based in Lusaka's Mutendere compound is an HIV/AIDS project targeted at reaching young people aged 18-25 both in and out of school. The main aim of the center is to provide reproductive health/HIV/AIDS information through various activities. The center provides the following services:
  • Recreational facilities and services that include games such as pool, table tennis, draft, chess, mini soccer, etc.
  • Counseling services will be provided at the center every day of the week from 09:00 am to 5:00 pm.
  • Voluntary Testing and Counseling (VCT) facility at the center (In process)
  • Regular workshops on various youth related issues with an emphasis on HIV/AIDS
  • A drama group, which conducts outreach in Mutendere community.
  • A peer-educational opportunities

Activities

Africa Alive! organized and implemented its first roadshows in Livingstone, Ndola, Kitwe, Chipata, Kabwe, and Kapiri Mpegi districts. The roadshows consist of music contests, which combine the benefits of using well-known musicians to drive the key messages and to act as role models with the benefits of involving youth directly in the events as contestants. These travelling road shows are the impetus for more sustained local action because they involve local youth and youth-friendly organizations.

Africa Alive! introduced the Postcards Program to the audience at the Livingstone roadshows. The Postcards Program is a way for young people in Africa to share their experiences, their stories, their hopes and fears about living with the reality of AIDS. Africa Alive! is encouraging young people as individuals or as members of youth groups, church groups, schools, or AIDS prevention organizations to send their personal stories. These stories will be shared with other youth in Zambia through local media outlets as well as with an international audience through the Africa Alive! Web site. Additionally, Africa Alive! launched the Postcards Program in two interviews, broadcast on ZNBC (Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation) radio, and TV in Lusaka, as well as by sponsoring a special edition of "Trendsetters." (20,000 copies were distributed to schools.)

YM published "Trendsetters" newspaper, the monthly sexual and reproductive health newspaper for youth. YM is celebrating the fourth anniversary of the paper.
"Trendsetters" continues to educate, inform, and alter the behavior of its readers. One reader wrote:

"I read your paper cover to cover and make sure I get a copy every month…I personally wish to thank you for the article on TB. I thought TB was one of those viral diseases that was not curable and that if you had TB you no doubt had the monster HIV…the worst is that I didn't even realise I was this ignorant…keep up the good work…"

YM received the technical assistance of a Voluntary Service Overseas Volunteer, who not only assisted with streamlining the management systems and production capacity, but also did significant fund-raising and brought in $15,000 of computer equipment and a vehicle for the organisation.

YAO organized four Youth Football and Sexual Reproductive Health Camps, targeting boys aged 14-24 and their parents in rural Zambia with reproductive health awareness and educational messages. Video shows and discussions were also held in the community. Youth were involved in program structuring, implementation, and management of the camps.

Africa Directions
The Mutendere youth centre was launched in November 2001. Since the launch, Africa Directions has provided both recreational and educational services, receiving on average 30 visits a day.

Outputs

• Twelve roadshows.
• Postcards Program launched in Livingstone and Lusaka.
• 37,500 copies of "Trendsetters" published.
• Four soccer camps.

Using Sports: Sexual and Reproductive Health Football Camps (1.4 MB)	Catalytic Projects Through Zambian Youth in the HIV/AIDS Response (1.4 MB)	Interfaith Training on Sexual and Reproductive Health (1.4 MB)

Impact

• 60,000 people reached through roadshows.
• 200 youth and approximately 28,000 community members reached through soccer camps.
• A reduction in the number of unplanned pregnancies.
• An increase in community participation in spontaneous meetings.
• Greater youth involvement in community affairs.
• An increase in VCT, especially among engaged couples.
• A heightened awareness among the community at large regarding the transmission and prevention of AIDS.

Unique Features

These interventions are designed for youth by youth, using entertainment and popular culture media relevant to their audience

Future Plans

To continue to find innovative ways and means to educate and mobilize youth in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Partners

• Africa Alive!
• YM
• YAO
• Africa Directions

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