You Matter
Led by
Youth Inter-Active (YIA)
Scope
Local (Umlazi Township and Durban, South Africa)
Stakeholders targeted
Municipality, civil society organizations
Youth rights in focus
- Right to health, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)
- HIV/AIDS and human rights
- Right to education, with a focus on human rights education
Main objectives
- To build the capacity of young people from marginalized communities on their SRHR, while integrating civic education
- To build social cohesion among youth
- To decrease the infection rate of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections among youth
Key outcomes
Adolescents and youth started making informed decisions about bodily autonomy, contributing to a decrease in the HIV/AIDS infections
Success factors
- Cohesion with the organization
- Research-based advocacy
- Engaging community leaders, actors and relevant stakeholders
- Letting the voices of youth drive the initiative
Challenges
- Social constructs and systemic barriers leading to social exclusion
- Lack of resources to mobilize; financial barriers
- Lack of engagement from relevant stakeholders
Lessons learned
- Youth leadership in the implementation of policies, not only seeing youth as beneficiaries
- The voices of those who are marginalized must be heard in order to address marginalization
- Data collection for advocacy
