Editorial Design

4th Edition Newsletter 2020

1089732626

The Heart of SRHR Information | Services | Enabling Environment

Mission To promote the realization of sexual reproductive health and human rights

Vision

Core Values

Sexual and reproductive health and rights for all

Commitment to partnership Respect for Human rights, Commitment to uphold integrity and accountability, Commitment to learning and innovation

SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

Contents 5

My Journey in concuring the fear of disclosure:

6

Youth Adult Partnerships to end teenage pregnancies:

8

ADVANCING SRHR FOR ALL

9

Dance 4Life Trajectory

11

Stronger Together

12

Meaningful Youth Engagement and knowledge sharing in SRHR

13

Members of County Assembly

14

Youth Friendly Centers for the Win

15

Partnerships for better results

17

Economic empowerment for GUSO champions in Nairobi County

18

2019 Conferences & Event Day

Follow us on; @KenyaSRH

@KenyaSRH

@kenyasrhr

@SRHR Alliance Kenya

Word from the secretariat implementation of the multi component approach whereby our partners joined forces and collaborated on a number of activities to reach policy makers, young people and communities. Young people were off-course not left behind on this and they created youth movements in their communities to address some SRHR challenges thus giving them a voice and opportunity to influence change

The SRHR Alliance is happy to share with you some of our best practices from 2019 in this 4th edition of our annual newsletter.

Since the inception of the GUSO program in 2016, we have reached more young people with SRHR information, education and services, building capacities of partners in different ways and diversifying our channels of engagement both with young people,policy makers and the community influencing SRHR. We are proud to be associated with all our partners, some of whom have shared some of their spectacular stories from the past year.

We hope this series will bring you joy as you interact with the stories from our members on the measures they are taking to create a better world. Kindly give us feedback on this publication and follow us on our social media channels for more of our updates.

One of our greatest achievement of 2019 is the

Send views and comments info@srhralliance.or.ke

2019 Achievements

2,750

361,878

Peer educators trained

direct services

90, 433

206,294

Young people reached with SRHR Education

indirect services

1,4m

1,380,691 people on social media

24, 164 young people reached with SRHR information

SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

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SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

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SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

My Journey in concuring the fear of disclosure: Before and After!!!

knew this was a blatant lie but to me it would get them off my case. Years down the line through a friend, I decided to attend one.

For the first time in a long time, I felt like home.

S

upport groups were never my cup of tea. I remember for 5 years after I knew about my status, the clinicians in the facility I was picking my drugs from, would always urge me to attend support groups and since I did not want to be rude or anything, I’d inquire on the date and promise to attend once I close school.

In my head, I knew this was a blatant lie but to me it would get them off my case. Years down the line through a friend, I decided to attend one. For the first time in a long time, I felt like home.

I met so many young people who like me were living with HIV. Listening to them made me understand that their fears were the same as mine. With the help of peer educators, nurses and clinicians who were always available during the support groups, my shell of fear was slowly breaking away. All was well until disclosure came along. Of all fears, this one carries the day.

Living with HIV is not as difficult until you bring up disclosure. Your mind will go haywire. Thank you to

the continued support groups I have attended at AYARHEP, I am better.

This has been a learning journey, I have been able to talk about my status, the fear is still there but it is better. It is actually true that when you meet other people drinking from the same cup (figuratively), it feels more hopeful.

I always felt the burden of infection was my full responsibility. I remember countless number of times I turned down possible suitors for fear of having the sex conversation putting in mind I was the positive one and if anything went wrong, it would have been my fault. Therefore, I opted to single hood ‘not sharing the HIV is caring’. I am not the only one who felt this burden most of my friends who we attended the same support group had this fear.

to keep my body and HIV to myself, not because I wanted but because I had to.

Positive Health Dignity Prevention training by AYARHEP was a big eye opener, it felt great to finally know that it was not only my responsibility as the infected one to help prevent infection but it was also the responsibility of the affected to ensure they did not get infected. A problem shared I must admit it is half solved. Although I still bear the responsibility of taking lead in ensuring I reduce the risk of transmission, I do not mind as long us we are helping each other it seems much easier.

Adherence is one-step to reduce the risk of transmission, strictly sticking to the dosage as prescribed by the doctor at the scheduled time. “

Fear of disclosure, which led to fear of rejection. Let us say I disclosed and he stayed there was still fear of infecting, what would happen if we had sex and he was infected?

What would he do to me? I never wanted to add an extra baggage to the existing load. I made a decision

SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

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SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

Youth Adult Partnerships to end teenage pregnancies: A story of ADS Nyanza In Homa-bay County

T 40% Narok County

33%

Homabay County

29%

West Pokot County

eenage pregnancy has been a persistent problem in Kenya for some time now. KDHS 2014 highlights it as a crisis in Narok, Homabay and West Pokot among other counties in Kenya. According to the survey, Narok leads at 40% followed closely by Homabay at 33% then West Pokot at 29%. As Kenya struggles to lower the age of consent to 16, rates of teenage pregnancy continues to grow. Infact, a recent report from the DHIS shared

by Homabay County RMNCAH Coordinator shows that the figures have shot to 43% in 2017 among all the ANC attendance in Homabay and 46% in 2018 among all the ANC attendance that year. The immediate former Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga described the problem as a burgeoning crisis going by the case loads on defilement alone.

It is against this backdrop that

KDHS 2014 highlights

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SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

ADS Nyanza, a faith-based organization with the support from the GUSO programme moved into programming to help reduce the incidences ADS Nyanza aimed to reduce teenage pregnancy cases presented in 2017 by 25% by end of 2018. They made use of a number of strategies including; Capacity building of youth advocates, Radio talk shows-at EK FM, SMS platform, Community dialogue, Community paralegals and sharing of lessons learnt with GUSO partners (FHOK, NAYA and KMET).

25%

In percentage the ADS Nyanza aimed to reduce teenage pregnancy cases presented in 2017 by end of 2018

SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

5223

GUSO initiative reached

young people

2307 males

2916 Females

ADS-Nyanza was deliberate in involving both youths and adults in the GUSO program irrespective of background, affiliation or disability. The implementation process began with identification and training of youth advocates on ASRHR and MYP with support from SIMAVI. The organization further identified key influencers and trained them together with the youth advocates on Youth Adult Partnership. This resulted in joint partnerships through which EK FM offered free airtime for a joint talk show by community paralegals and youth advocates on SRHR every Thursday. The talk shows have been key in providing critical SRHR information to young people to enable them make informed reproductive health choices. Key topics on the show have been teenage pregnancy, condom use, contraceptives and decision making. This initiative reached 5223(2307 males, 2916 females) young people Community dialogue forums brought together key decision makers and youths drawn from across the island. Some of the key decision makers have been the Sub-county RH Coordinator - Mbita, the resident magistrate Mbita Law Court, All health facility in-charges in Mfangano ward, Ward PHO, the police, the assistant County commissioner, faith leaders amongst others. The dialogue were key in coming up with key strategies of addressing the menace, they also increased vigilance and mapping of pregnant teens. Youth advocates have since come up with young mothers’ sessions where they are empowered on life skills and contraceptives. As a result, 57 young mothers were taken back to school in 2017 and 2018.

Dialogue were used as a forum to review progress and chat way forward on key challenges faced by young people.

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young mothers were taken back to school in 2017 and 2018 due to young mothers’ sessions

From the dialogue, community paralegals and Mbita law courts gave the issue a legal approach. As a result, the Mbita Law Court as a member of the Court Users Committee conducted sensitization forums in Sena, Ugina, Remba, Ringiti, and Takawiri beaches on teenage pregnancy/defilement as an SRH issue with a legal touch.

Faith leaders intensified SRHR information dissemination to well upto 2816 (1518 females: 1298 males) drawn from the Island. Facility in charges at Ugina, Sena and Wakula health centers committed to and have come up with adolescent days held once a month and reached out to a total of 1287 youths ( 786 females: 501 males) with key information on contraceptives.

This joint partnership resulted in reduction of teenage pregnancies in Mbita sub-county, Mfangano ward. Overally, there was drastic reduction in teenage pregnancies recorded in Mfangano ward from 311 in 2017 cases down to 176 in 2018 and a significant drop in Mbita from 46% in 2017 to 29 % in 2018 and from position 5 in the county in 2017 to position 8 in 2018 out of the 8 sub-counties (DHIS). This shows that these efforts have created a significant change and more inclusive forums (dialogues) are key.

CHALLENGES Low contraceptives uptake among adolescents due to opposition from parents Low socio-economic status making adolescents vulnerable to sex predaators Catholic Church position on contraceptives vs. its dominance in Mfangano Island.

KEY LESSONS LEARNT Access to information is key in addressing the most teething reproductive health problems such as teenage pregnancy.

When youths are involved in solving their own problems, the resultant change is magical i.e. from 311 to 176 cases in span of 1 year.

Teenage pregnancy is a multi-sectoral issue that needs joint approaches: health and legal to address as in the case of Mfangano Island.

SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

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SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

ADVANCING SRHR FOR ALL :

A Human Library For Adolescents And Young People Living With HIV:

R

eligious leaders have been known to be against SRHR topics due to their Religious belief spaces reach more people compared to any other place as many Kenyans identify with a religion with a total of 85% of its population being christians, 9% muslims and 6% representing other religions.

AYARHEP saw an opportunity in engaging with religious leaders so as to reach more young people. In 2019, they conducted a session with religious leaders on advancing Sexual Reproductive health and rights of adolescent and young people living with HIV. The session adopted one – on- one approach through a platform that allowed religious leaders to interact with adolescent and young people living with HIV in order to understand their SRHR needs. % of population in Kenya are:

85% Christians 9% Muslims 6%Other religions

To achieve the ultimate goal of mobilizing religious leaders to be champions of SRHR, AYARHEP conducted T.O.T’S training and further used a Human library concept to as an opportunity to have a young person living with HIV engage directly with a religious leader. The young people sharedtheir experiences on SRHR as YPLHIV with the leader through story telling models. This as well helped to clarify attitudes and myths about HIV. The trained young people used different channels such as phone calls, SMS, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp chat, video to deliver the Human library concept to religious leaders and their peers.

This as well strengthened youth adult partnership among the young people and the adults in the organization.

The Human library concept although a pilot, was a success as it got support by the international network of religious leaders living

with HIV Kenya chapter who are still interested in actualizing the concept among other religious leaders who are not living with HIV. Through the one – on – one engagement with AYARHEP many of the religious leaders realized that they were stigmatizing AYARHEP in their sermons and conditions governing their churches. Therefore some of the churches involved amended unprogressive laws that require mandatory HIV testing before weddings. In the past, those who tested HIV positive got denied a chance to wed in church.

I didn’t know that our structural procedures in church were discriminatory until my engagement with the young person, who shared about how church stigmatized AYPLHIV especially when we force couples to disclose HIV status to us before wedding.

As the lead evangelist leading the department I shared with colleagues and we just advice couple to go for HIV test hence when they are comfortable with their HIV status we just wed them we have changed the forms not to include section on mandatory HIV testing.

I hope to share with others religious leaders not to discriminate people living with HIV ’’.

Rev. Ann Ngina

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SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

Dance 4Life Trajectory: Adding some fun in Learning!

Dance 4 Life together with FHOK co-created a CSE curriculum called Journey 4 Life which is a model aimed to reach young people in and out of school with quality SRHR Education, Information and linkage to SRHR services.

T

he curriculum was designed to be peer led and therefore, 40 Young people called champions 4 Life aged 18-22 years were identified in four counties (Nairobi, Kisumu, Kakamega and Bondo) and trained on the model so as to ensure quality of content delivered. After the champions 4 Life training, a total of 24 schools and 6 youth groups were identified in the four counties where the model would be implemented so as to reach the agents 4 change (young people in and out of school).

The journey4Life being an Empowerment Model has had positive effects on young people SRHR in the different Counties. It is a transformation model that tackles the key determinants that influence intentions to change behaviour.

Three stages Model

ME stage

ME & YOU stage

which aims at building self-confidence of young people

which creates gender equal attitudes

ME & SOCIETY stage which critically assesses challenging social norms surrounding young people

It has three stages which include:

ME stage

ME and YOU stage ME and SOCIETY

he model links young people to SRHR services through an activation in one of the encounters.

SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

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SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020 The Dance4Life empowerment model relies on the process of experiential learning. This means that the methodology of the encounters always engages and allows participants to go through an experience, reflect on the experience and are able to generate insights which they incorporate in their daily lives. The activities take the participants through a concrete experience which can be a game or role play in which they actively participate. After each activity there are questions to reflect on the experience allowing participants to discover themselves and their behaviours in such situations. These reflections offer new insights and lessons learned which the agents 4 change can plan to incorporate into their daily lives when they face a similar situation.

4280

Journey4Life model reached

young people

1980 males

2300 Females

The approach of the model is geared towards involving young people to find solutions to issues within themselves. The overarching activities to facilitate reflective and critical thinking within the Journey4Life are journaling, mindfulness, storytelling and creative expression which makes the model interesting for young people. A total of 4280(1980M; 2300F) were reached with the model in 2019 with 953(431M; 522F) accessing quality AYFS services. The model uses monitoring tools and CSE implementation checklist.

CHALLENGES at first the model did not have adequate SRHR content, this was rectified through contextualization process whereby the Dance4 Life team, FHOK and IPPF team reviewed and added SRHR content to the manual thus ensuring that the agents 4 change access quality SRHR information. tight school calendar which affected implementation in school. The project team maximized on the out of school activities so as to ensure the targets were achieved.

SUCCESS The model was accepted in schools and out of school settings where it was implemented and the agents 4 change were always motivated to participate in the sessions .This was because of the interesting activities in the manual which include role plays and activations that are experienced by the agents 4 change in real life as well as the fact that the model engages the agents 4 change to find solutions amongst themselves.

Quality content delivery of the model by trained peer educators Contexualization of the model to fit to suit the Kenyan context showcasing real life situations faced by young people in Kenya thus creating local ownership

Since the program started I have witnessed a lot of character change among the students especially those who belong to the group Veronicah Kimathi.

Head of Guidance and Counselling.

Dandora High school

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SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

Stronger Together;

Harmonization by GUSO partners in the Western Alliance region.

T

he GET UP Speak Out Programme is a five year programme implemented by 10 members of the Kenya SRHR Alliance members. One of the five principles guiding the implementation of the programme is known as the multicomponent approach (MCA). Various partners in the Alliance have expertise/specialization in different outcome areas (objectives). The GUSO programme, therefore, was designed in such a way that partners complement each other in the implementation of the different aspects of the programme. One of the activities to achieve this principle is joint community outreaches and conversations. KMET partnered with the Western Alliance partners to conduct two mega joint activities in Kisumu in 2019 during the Menstrual Hygiene day and the World contraception day.

Prior to the material days, planning meetings were held with the partners and another jointly with the County and Sub-County Health Management Teams. During the planning meetings, partners had a chance to discuss and agree upon various issues including: venue, target group, types of services to be provided and the number of service providers, commodities and supplies, mobilization of various participants, budget, program for the day among other issues. Activities during the joint events included; RH service provision, advocacy sessions, community conversations and review meeting with partners.

A total of 1172 (MHM 841and WCD 331) participants attended and participated during the 2 events. 518 young people received various SRH services during the joint activities. Generally SRHR information, referral and service provision was done by the Ministry of Health service providers at the link health facilities i.e. cancer screening, family planning, counselling and consultations on contraceptives, Condoms distribution and general curative services

The event was a great success and we wish to do better in future events. With all humility, we say partnership and teamwork is Key in Ministry of health, We seriously acknowledge our esteemed partners as follows, SRHR Alliance, MOH, KMET ,NAYA, FHOK, TICH, ADS NYANZA, WOFAK Florence, RH Coordinator Kisumu Central Sub county

CHALLENGES Inadequate and early planning and resource mobilization from partners. MOH solely depending on partners for support.

KEY LESSONS LEARNT Providing platforms for different stakeholders has helped us to learn on what their position are regarding their sexuality. Anglican has actively engaged in communicating about sexuality The Sub-counties are ready for partnership with other stakeholders in addressing SRH for the young people especially in outreaches There is need for continuous structured partnership in order to address the poor reproductive health indicators among the young people The approach of reaching 10-15 years old (hard to reach) is emerging as the focus through functions such as outreach.

Mobilization using community structures such as Community Health Volunteers and local administrators is an appropriate strategy for reaching many young people Multicomponent approach based partnership strengthen services delivery for young people e.g. expanded outreach (MOH, TICH, KMET, NAYA, FHOK, ADS NYANZA, CHU)

SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

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SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

Meaningful Youth Engagement and knowledge sharing in SRHR. running smoothly within the organization and externally.

This process was spearheaded through leveraging on technology to ensure that there was the backup and constant update of information by peer educators thus ensuring that there is comprehensiveness of information especially by young people, community and all other relevant stakeholders.

M

eaningful youth engagement and knowledge management has become a key instrument for decision making, creating, identifying and sharing knowledge within personnel in Nairobits Trust.

Knowledge management and meaningful youth engagement has been a useful means for the organization to improve knowledge sharing among the peer educators and the staff. For the implementation of this practice, high quality documentation has been key in programing. This is clearly demonstrated when peer educators and young staff members are not able to correctly and efficiently use data gathered to influence the current or future programming.

For the adoption of knowledge management different strategies have been used. This includes; ss peer educators interactions through different modes such as e-interactions (by use of WhatsApp), face to face during review meetings or through reports with each other they share knowledge they have gathered from meetings, forums or conferences. This has shown the competence of the peer educators to converse on SRHR issues. Secondly there is the capacity building sessions and 12

apprenticeship through which peer educators have been able to undergo trainings such as on fundraising, exposure visits to steer exchange learnings documentation and on-job trainings. Through these models peer educators were able to obtain, improve, and retain the skills learnt and knowledge to do their jobs competently. This culture has helped in cascading the goal of the Get Up Speak Out project to the youth, adolescents and the community at large. The three pillars that have been used to successfully adopt knowledge management at Nairobits include leadership, capacity building and learning.

Motivation and turnover have been a challenge in knowledge management Especially getting peer educators who are not motivated to share their work and ideas in a shared space to address this, Nairobits adopted a culture of respect to learning and improving and created spaces of sharing and change thereby creating a safe space for the peer educators to openly share with each other. Secondly, as turnover is unavoidable, and sometimes the responsibilities tied to a community can fall through the cracks, keeping a detailed record or booklet of the tasks by each peer educator involved has kept knowledge

SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

This strategy has helped the organization in visibility and recognition with the Nairobi County government/community especially on youth engagement in SRHR and community voices as records of activities are constantly shared with the county and the community for the ownership of the programming.

To share I will learn… and to learn I need to listen…”

Rachael K.

A NairoBits peer educator sharing information in the peer educators WhatsApp group after a meeting.

SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

Members of County Assembly; Champions of reproductive Health!

NAYA has established a good relationship with members of County Assemmbly in Kenya. Through this, they have been able to influence change in budgetary processes and allocations in their Counties of implementation more so on reproductive health.

T

his was done through sensitization and technical assistance sessions to members of county assembly on the need to invest in health financing. NAYA then Identified members who are pro health as key champions to help actualize the agenda on increasing RH budgets.

The selected MCA champions were mandated to develop County specific action plans with key actions to implement in relation to reproductive health. They then signed a commitment document with the champions committing to account and implement the actions including reporting back to stakeholders. Continuous strategic meetings held with the champions on budget advocacy helped to highlight key budget gaps and strategies that needed to be put in place. With this, the champions took the lead role in championing the agenda with constant push from the health committee clerks where the champions are drawn from and who also form part of the champions.

By the end of the financial year 2019, Kisumu County and Siaya County

had allocated funds in different areas on RH in their Counties.

Policy makers can be the drivers of change that we hope to see, if correctly sensitized and capacitated and by believing that they can understand young peoples issues and can influence change without coercion. Kisumu county allocated 69 million for Reproductive Health, Maternal, Neo-natal, Child and Adolescent Health and Siaya County for the first time allocated 2million in Reproductive Health training of service providers in the budgets for fiscal year 2019/2020.

Our policy makers have tight schedules, however, the binding actions compelled them to achieve the results.

There is need for constant engagement with policy makers to inform them of the changing RH environment in the Counties they represent, including putting the committee clerks on the drivers seat to help drive the agenda and analysis of the budgets to identify key asks to inform policy makers promptly.

69

Million

Was allocated by Kisumu County for Reproductive Health, Maternal, Neo-natal, Child and Adolescent Health

2

Million

Was allocated by Siaya County for the first time, for Reproductive Health, Maternal, Neo-natal, Child and Adolescent Health

SUCCESS Development of County specific action plans by the champions themselves.

Having a signed biding Accord with MCA’s that stipulates advocacy priorities Identification and training of policy makers with passion on welfare of young people.

As champions of reproductive health, there was no way we could forget allocating money for that, it was part of our priority and we commit to ring fence it further Kisumu County MCA RH champion, Mr Seth.

SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

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SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

Youth Friendly Centres for the Win!

I

n 2019, SAIPEH managed to set up 3 Youth Friendly Centers in 3 Health facilities in addition to 1 YFC that was set up in 2018 making a total of 4 YFC with the support of TICH and the Ministry of Health. 2 YFCs were established in Mumias East Sub county and 1 in Butere Sub county. In 2018, there was identification of health facilities where the YFCs would be set up. In Mumias East, each of the 3 Wards was to have 1 YFC while in Butere Sub County, the Kenyan Ministry of Health was to aid in selection of the health facility.

SAIPEH trained health providers and Community Health Volunteers (CHV’s) on provision of youth friendly services at household level and referrals of Young people to YFCs. SAIPEH then trained 121 out of School peer educators from Community Units attached to the 3 facilities as well as 160 PALS, held education sessions as well as information dissemination to create demand for reproductive health services.

The selected 3 health facilities’ management identified the rooms that were then furnished, branded and equipped by SAIPEH and handed them over to the management of the health facilities ,supported by the trained peer educators. With the presence of YFC in the two sub counties, more young people started to access SRH services in the 3 Youth friendly centers. Through the setting up of the YFC, there has been an increase in uptake of SRH services in these health facilities with 1036 young people in 2019 as compared to 119 in 2018. Community health volunteers also played an important role of referring young people with various SRH issues to the youth friendly centers.

KEY LESSONS LEARNT There is need to set up more safe spaces in health facilities to enable young people access SRH services.

CHALLENGES SAIPEH won’t have funds to support the 4 youth friendly centers in 2020 since funding of GUSO Project was not extended to 2020. This comes as a big blow to health facilities since they have inadequate funds to support operations in the YFCs. Transfer and redeployment of health providers that SAIPEH had trained to other counties has been a challenge as there is need to train the new health care workers.

Through Shianda youth friendly corner, I have been able to get direction on the importance of family planning and demystify the myth that family planning has side effects. I have been taking through various methods of family planning.

I have been referred to health provider where she was assisted and put on relevant family planning method that suits my body Diana Naliaka, Young Person.

We have already received a good number of young people in the centre who have come to seek either SRH services or information and I have urged health workers working in the facility to attend to them without discriminating them Zainab Lumbasi HCW

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SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

Victor Aron told me that something good was going on….he saw me as an addict…This is the person who mentored me to who I am today Young Person Rachuonyo East Sub-county

Partnerships for better results;

Mapping out partners for progressive collaborations

I

n 2019, TICH continued to implement the MultiComponent approach which is one of the strategies by the GUSO programme. They did this by Mapping Out of Potential Partners for collaborations by Identification of partners with specific capacities, who are able to contribute to the project in their various strengths as well as benefit from the project.

The process started with a well planned entry meeting with clear deliverables that would have led to joint planning to arrive at a common goals followed by a series of joint monitoring of development of improvement actions. Based on results from entry process, the mutually consenting partners engaged in a joint planning process that clearly stated out targets to be realized for effective MCA approach and roles of each partner based on areas of influence. The planning process ended at a level when all requisite specializations had been catered for project implementation by SRHR goals. During implementation, constant implementation monitoring meetings were conducted to determine how well the partnership was performing and improvement actions. TICH uses a partnership model; Capacity Assessment tool; Dialogue Model and Objective-based Planning Model to assess the impact and contribution of their partnerships.

Kenya has a Community Health Strategy Policy which emphasizes stakeholder engagement and has led to ease of integration with MOH and community health activities

CHALLENGES Harmonization of plans among MCA partners, addressed through joint planning and implementation monitoring and improvement planning..

Achieving common field sites among partners, addressed through enhancing scope of potential MCA partners beyond the SRHR Alliance (e.g. MOH central partner)

SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

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SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

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SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

Economic empowerment for GUSO champions in Nairobi County

A

t the onset of the GUSO project, WOFAK identified youth champions whom they have been working with to create demand for SRHR services in the community. Since 2016, these champions have done tremendous work supported under the GUSO project and have been good role models to many other youths in the community.

Unemployment in Kenya is a major challenge that affects youth across the Country. Approximately 800,000 young Kenyans enter the labour market every year .Youth unemployment is estimated to be as high as 35% compared to the overall national unemployment rate of 10%. Furthermore, 80% of unemployed Kenyans are below 35 years of age. In the year 2018, WOFAK began to strongly have discussions around sustainability of the impact made by the GUSO project. They felt that it would be important to economically build the

capacity of the youth champions to ensure financial sustainability. Since GUSO does not have a direct fund for economic empowerment, the organization achieved this athrough mapping of potential partners.

They identified Kijiji cha Upendo, No One Out, the community and Kolping vocational training centre that were interested in empowering young people through vocational training. The organizations allocated 16 slots for training of young people on different entrepreneurial skills .

WOFAK then held meetings with the young people selected for the training programme together with their caregivers to discuss individual career ambitions, available courses, course duration and mode of training. The champions selected what best suited them and applied for individual courses based on their interest.

Some of the champions had pre-set courses that they wanted to pursue but unfortunately,they were not in the list of what was being offered. WOFAK engaged a career counsellor who played an active role in helping the champions understand that the available courses were equally good opportunities and would give them good opportunities in life.

Open discussions between the champions and their caregivers on which courses to take up worked well. This created an opportunity for guidance, sharing of challenges and support geared towards successful completion of the course. All the 16 champions successfully completed the trainings and were awarded certificates. They were provided with start-up kits to start their own small businesses. As at December 2019, all the champions had stable sources of income and employed other young people to help manage their businesses.

WOFAK engaged social workers who conducted visits during visiting days to check on progress of the champions and address any issue that might have arisen during the semester.

35%

estimated rate of unemployed Youth in Kenya

80%

of unemployed Kenyans are below 35 years of age

“I will get married as an empowered girl who will change the community” Fatuma Abdi

SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

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SRHR Alliance Newsletter 2020 2019 Kenya Conferences Panel Discussion on CSE with UNESCO, UNFPA, MOH, Teachers and students on the panel that Provided space for discussion on CSE with all relevant stakeholders, clarified misconceptions on the same.

Supported 5 people to attend the conference SRHR Alliance Booth, shared SRHR information with conference participants, provided platform for visibility

3rd Conference on Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health by RHN

ICASA 2019

Presented 3 Abstracts; Using RADA mobile App to reduce the rates of HIV infection among University Students; A case of UoN, Sex Positive Approaches in Delivery of Sexual Reproductive Health & HIV and AIDS Related Education and Information to School Going Adolescents and Young People, Held a session on involvement of young people in achieving the global 90.90.90 target on ending HIV Supported 6 people to attend the conference

ICASA 2019

Held a Panel Discussions on the Pleasure study in Kenya and Ghana that brought on discussions on Comprehensive Sexuality education and how more sex positive it can become.

Held booth sessions with international partners on implementation of programmes, creating movements for achieving our goals and objectives and breaking the SRHR barriers in different countries think Globally Act Locally

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SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

ICPD +25 Summit

SRHR Alliance Kenya Newsletter 2020

The Nairobi Summit on

ICPD25 Held a Panel Discussion on the SRHR Package and UHC. Panelists were; The Executive Committee Member of Health and Emergency Services of Machakos County in Kenya, the Governor of Kisumu County which is also a pilot Country for UHC in Kenya, Director of Family Health, Ministry of Health Indonesia, Executive Director of Reproductive Health Uganda, 25 under 25 She Decides Champion and 2 representatives of civil society Highlighted the efforts that have been done in different countries on UHC and shared best practices. The panel discussion as well gave chance to participants to engage among themselves and the panelists on what has worked and what hasn’t worked in achieving UHC

International Days Celebration

2019 Menstrual Hygiene Day

2019 World Health Day

2019 International Youth Day

2019 World AIDS Day

2019 World Contraceptive Day

Celebrated; Menstrual Hygiene Day, World Health Day, International Youth Day, World Contraceptive Day and World AIDS Day Counties; Nairobi, Kisumu, Kakamega, Siaya Reach; 2000 people directly with SRHR information, education and services during the days Wrote articles during world Health day and World Contraceptive Day, held tweet chats on all celebration of the days, had a press release on Menstrual Health, collaborated with county government during WCD and WAD

SRHR Alliance Kenya. | The heart of SRHR

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P.O.Box 19329-00202 Nairobi, Kenya Tel: 020 2398 723/4 E-mail: info@srhralliance.co.ke www.srhralliance.or.ke Kenya SRHR Alliance

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