ZAMBIA
Helping Each Other Act Responsibly Together (HEART)
Activity Dates
August 2004-September 2009
Activity Summary
HCP Zambia’s Youth Strategy is focused on developing a more resilient generation of youth with the ability to make positive life choices. Programs focus on empowering youth with the necessary information and skills to (1) practice positive reproductive health behaviors, (2) facilitate the development of respectful, gender equitable relationships between young men and women, (3) transform them into a cadre of leaders who are actively engaged in mobilizing their peers, and (4) increase their utilization of available reproductive health services.
Creative HEART
The Zambia Creative HEART Contest was developed to help communities engage school-going youth ages 10-19. It modeled positive adult-youth communication in order to help youth address the health challenges they face and to develop self-efficacy through positive learning and creative experiences. Since the program’s inception in 2005, there have been more than 60,000 participants with the winners of local contests moving on to district-level competitions and sometimes participating in traditional festivals.
HEART Life Skills Toolkit
The HEART Life Skills Toolkit was developed in response to the need for an age-appropriate, user-friendly, entertaining activity that openly addresses the complexity of pressures on youth and, through tested interventions, increases awareness and self-efficacy in dealing with them. Youth leaders from each of HCP’s districts were trained as Master Trainers. In turn, these Master Trainers have trained community peer leaders and facilitated HEART Life Skills activities reaching more than 89,000 youth.
The HEART Life Skills Toolkit is being adapted by other organizations including the Christian Children’s Fund and World Vision as well as local organizations such as Ibenga Networks, Adolescent Reproductive Health Advocates (in Mongu) and the Mpongwe AIDS Project.
HEART Waves
HEART Waves uses mass media, specifically radio and print, to reach young people in rural areas with adolescent reproductive health messages. Focus groups were held with in- and out-of-school youth in rural areas to understand their attitudes and behavior on issues regarding their sexuality and interaction with parents and other adults regarding sexuality. This, in turn, informed the development of posters addressing abstinence, delayed sexual debut, youth-adult communication, VCT and knowing one’s status, and living positively with HIV/AIDS.
Materials/Tools
- Creative HEART
- HEART Life Skills Toolkit
- Posters
Audience
Youth
Partners
Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Youth, Soort, and Child Development, National Theatre and Arts Association of Zambia (NATAAZ), Zambia Center for Communication Programs
Back to Zambia
Note about materials: Some of the materials and resources listed on each page are available in their full form, others are represented by image or citation only. For more information and resources, go to www.jhuccp.org
|
