Sona Sethi, Dr¹, Gabriela Schwed, MPH¹, and Ms. Nipaporn Intong, MPH². (1) PPFA-International, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 434 West 33rd Street, New York, NY 10001, 212-261-4774, gabriela.schwed@ppfa.org, (2) Asia Regional Office, Planned Parenthood Federation of America-International, 37 Petchburi Road, Soi 15, Bangkok, 10400, Thailand

“Reproductive Health Education and Services for Youth in Danang” is an example of a program that has successfully overcome conservative cultural beliefs and practices to increase access to, and utilization of, sexual and reproductive health education and services for youth in Vietnam. In partnership, PPFA-International and The Committee for Population, Family and Children in Danang City, developed and tested innovative models that provided age appropriate, reproductive health education and services for youth and improved the capacity of Vietnamese institutions to open their programs to young people. This program is a great example of what can be achieved by increasing the capacity of youth to provide education and services to their peers and the strengthening of public institutions to better meet the challenges of serving youth. The presentation will focus on easy to replicate best practices, strategies, and accomplishments of the program for the last five years, 1999-2004, including: training and utilization of peer educators, adapting youth-friendly techniques, and utilizing youth in the development and implementation of strategies. The presentation will also demonstrate the benefits such a program has on peer promoters as they gain valuable knowledge and skills that help them to become future leaders.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to

• Create three successful low cost, strategies for decreasing unwanted pregnancies and STIs among youth.
• Describe at least three tactics for overcoming challenges to the provision of youth reproductive health services in socially conservative settings.
• Understand the advantages of working with a group of peer educators who resemble and relate to the target audience.

Keywords: Adolescents, International, Reproductive Planning

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.