Recorded presentation

Paula Tavrow, PhD¹, Rebecca Morris, MPH¹, and Kitche Magak, MA². (1) Department of Community Health Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, P.O. Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, 310-794-4302, ptavrow@ucla.edu, (2) Kisumu Medical and Educational Trust, PO Box 6805, Kisumu, Kenya

Despite efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, the epidemic among youth in many African countries continues virtually unabated. Innovative, affordable interventions are needed to mitigate the major risk factors for youth--such as misconceptions about condoms, low self-esteem and self-efficacy, weak communication/negotiation skills, and barriers to accessing services. The Youth for Youth (Y4Y) program is a new, comprehensive adolescent reproductive health education and services model designed for rural Africa that incorporates lessons learned from past programs. It is being tested in Western Kenya where the estimated HIV prevalence rate is 11-15% for girls and 5-9% for boys. Focus group discussions and self-administered questionnaires reveal that rural youth have almost no access to reproductive health services and their reproductive health knowledge is seriously deficient. Y4Y has three main components: peer/mentor extra-curricular education, peer provision of services, and monitoring of youth satisfaction. Each participating secondary school is being assisted to introduce and sustain the program. A unique feature is that peer educators from secondary schools visit nearby primary schools and churches for 10 consecutive weeks, so that younger youths (aged 11-14) are mentored by older youth in a structured, interactive curriculum that develops life skills and provides sexuality education. In addition, the top peer educators are trained to provide basic counseling services to youth after school hours in designated clinics. Lastly, special youth satisfaction cards have been developed to track youths' experiences with services. In this presentation, the key challenges Y4Y faced and how they were overcome will be discussed.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to

• List the main lessons learned from previous reproductive health programs to reach African youth
• Describe the current misconceptions of rural Kenyan youth about reproductive health, as well as the poor treatment they have experienced
• Explain how the Youth for Youth program has overcome the barriers inherent in the rural African setting

Keywords: Adolescents, International, Contraception

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.

Recorded presentation