Legislators dialogue with Youth on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights SRHR and Comprehensive Sexuality Education
Youth representatives from all over the country’s four regions, gathered after a series of virtual engagements with their regional Women MPs as per the protocols to prevents the novel coronavirus pandemic after the government banned all gatherings in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus.
Youth representatives from all over the country’s four regions, gathered after a series of virtual engagements with their regional Women MPs as per the protocols to prevents the novel coronavirus pandemic after the government banned all gatherings in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus.
The event was hosted incorporation with the SADC Parliamentary Forum SRHR HIV/AIDS governance project, as a result, the event was graced by the speaker of the House of Assembly Honourable Petros Mavimbela the president, and Senator Isaac Magagula who is the vice president of the forum. The two were keynote speakers on the day.
The overall objective of the Because We Can National dialogue was to generate national interventions to counter the negative impacts of COVID-19 on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights and Comprehensive Sexuality Education for the adolescents and the youth as per their submissions during virtual regional dialogues with our SRHR Champions who are regional MPs.
After fruitful deliberations, the stakeholders came up with recommendations and interventions, amongst other things, the youth called for the legislators to ensure continued delivery of Sexual reproductive health services particularly family planning services to counter the high numbers of reported teenage pregnancies.
The youth also called for an increase in funding directed to youth programs to ensure that all young people are reached in all parts of the whole country. In addition, they highlighted the need to work towards the non-stigmatization of Sexual Reproductive Health services for young people so that they can freely access SRH services. without enduring the stigma attached to youth receiving SRH services.