Youth Leaders Advocate for Comprehensive Sexual Education in Honduras

The Asociación de GOJoven Honduras is a youth-lead NGO recently formed in Tegucigalpa, Honduras by graduates of the Public Health Institute’s Youth Leadership in Sexual and Reproductive Health Program (GOJoven). Evaluation data show that over a 10 year period 44 youth leaders built their leadership, program development and sexual and reproductive health skills and knowledge through their participation in GOJoven. Teams of youth leaders from eight regions in Honduras implemented leadership action plans in their communities resulting in measurable improvements in programs and access to sexual health education and services for youth and adolescents. GOJoven alumni joined together to legalize GOJoven Honduras as a registered youth-serving organization in late 2013 and have implemented strategic and advocacy planning focused on increasing the engagement and influence of youth in advocating for youth friendly sexual and reproductive health services. The organization is active in national and regional efforts to advocate for Honduras’ implementation of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action in the wake of the 20 year anniversary of ICPD. GOJoven Honduras is the chair of the National Advocacy Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights for Adolescents and has formed a Youth Platform to provide the youth voice and youth action within the Coalition. The organization is advocating for government accountability to the Ministerial Declaration for Prevention through Education that they signed at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City in 2008, which calls for comprehensive sexuality education and HIV education in schools throughout Honduras by 2015.