Location: Uganda

Mission: UYAFPAH’s goal is to improve access to and acceptability of family planning and reproductive health services for adolescents and youth by using a human rights based approach. The Alliance’s overall objectives are to:

• Enhance youth participation and accountability in Uganda’s decentralized health system using a human rights based approach to reproductive health.
• Strengthen the capacity of young people on human rights and sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR) issues to increase engagement in national, regional, and international policy discussions.
• Use innovative media and communications strategies as a platform for creating awareness among young people.

Focus Areas: Health, Advocacy

Program Overview:

• UYAFPAH visits primary, secondary, and tertiary schools to educate young girls and boys on SRHR issues and give them up-to-date, age appropriate information. UYAFPAH and partners spend a full day talking and holding focus groups with students about various challenging family planning topics, such as contraception and menstrual hygiene, and disseminate educational materials.
• Additionally at these school visits, UYAFPAH brings motivational speakers, professionals, and local artists to inspire students. UYAFPAH also refers young people to career mentors or coaches, through collaboration with other organizations.
• UYAFPAH conducts advocacy from the grassroots to the national level, such as campaigning for contraceptive use and promoting equitable access to family planning.
• Material incentives to join UYAFPAH (such as free condoms, t-shirts, wristbands, flyers, and educational CDs/DVDs) are generally provided by key partner organizations, such as UNFPA and World Vision.
• UYAFPAH is funded mainly by dues from its members, but it also runs a youth livelihood program in which young people make crafts, candles, hair clips, and jewelry to sell in local markets. The proceeds cover the young people’s time and materials, and a portion goes towards UYAFPAH’s savings.

Impacts:

• UYAFPAH holds or organizes events in communities to connect service providers with the people they serve. Most recently, UYAFPAH partnered with Marie Stopes Uganda to host the 2016 International Youth Day celebrations in Makerere Kavule, where over 76 young people accessed free voluntary HIV counseling and testing, and over 1,000 condoms were distributed.
• UYAFPAH holds “edutainment” events with partners to disseminate information about national policies, and then uses the registration sheets with participants’ information to track its reach and inform future activities.
• UYAFPAH’s “Let them be girls” project focuses on keeping girls in school. UYAFPAH goes into schools and tertiary institutions and talks about the challenges that girls face in pursuing their education, such as menstrual hygiene, teen pregnancy, and paying for tuition fees. At the most recent school outreach, UYAFPAH talked to nearly one thousand pupils in Kiswa Primary School about their health challenges, and held a question and answer session where girls and boys asked health-related questions.
• UYAFPAH partners with Sage and other organizations in youth empowerment, livelihood, and life skills, and invites members of UYAFPAH’s entrepreneurship clubs to attend exhibitions and meetings and showcase what they do. Students can win scholarships, discover professional opportunities, and network.

Learn More: www.uyafpah.org and www.facebook.com/UYAFPAH1