A close and collaborative effort by the Kilifi County government, the national government and Non-Governmental Organizations(NGOs) has helped reduce the cases of teen pregnancies.
According to Kenneth Miriti, the Coordinator of Reproductive Health in Kilifi County, there has been a downward trajectory of reducing teenage pregnancy from 32 per cent in 2018 to 14 per cent this year.
He spoke to journalists during a meeting to mark the end of Strengthening Local Advocacy Leadership (SLALE) funded by DSW, a German NGO at Silver Palm Resort in Kilifi.
DSW organization deals with issues of Reproductive health and works with youth from 10 to 24 years and formed youth groups that were trained on advocacy which helped push the county to establish four friendly youth empowerment centres.
Three more youth centres are set to be opened to cover all sub-counties in Kilifi.
"The program really helped in reducing the causes of teenage pregnancy if you look now even as we came to close the program majority of those present are youth, through the department of Gender and reproductive health we used to have an opportunity to pass the message during the forums we interacted with them," he said.
He said when the program started in 2018 the youth through SLALE approached their department and demanded youth centres be established all over the county and they promised to open seven.
In 2019-2020, he said the county managed to revive three which were not functional in Matsangoni, Mtwapa, Rabai and this year they have opened the fourth one in Malindi.
Mr Miriti said they are planning to open another youth friendly centre in Kaloleni, Magarini and another one in Kilifi North at Kilifi hospital.
"The youth were also able to sensitize us as a county to come up with intergrated youth friendly services in all the 60 dispensaries so if you go to all wards in the county you will get youth friendly services issued in the dispensaries and health centres," he said.
He said before the project kicked off there were no youth-friendly centres in the county that were functional.
He thanked the county government for welcoming DSW as it had come up with advocacy programs in which they proposed key projects which were factored in the budget.
The Coordinator said youth centres are important because they give an opportunity to have youth to youth interaction without an older person than them.
"In Kilifi we had a big problem of teenage pregnancies, in the youth centres we have created youth can talk with their peers about ways of preventing teenage pregnancy, life skills," he said.
Currently, he said so many things which could not be done are now possible due to the availability of the youth centres.
One of the beneficiaries of the SLALE Stephen Kibindo said the program sought to address teenage pregnancies and increased cases of HIV and AIDS among young children which were rampant.
“With the youth friendly centres, this has given a chance for the youth to know their status and work with other youth to learn about sexual reproductive health,” he said.
In 2019 he said that 30 per cent of girls were pregnant and now the numbers have reduced adding that the ongoing plan to open up the youth-friendly centres will help in ending the vice.
"Youth friendly centres are important because it’s not about bringing up the youth only but also giving them an opportunity to learn about their health," he said.
Before the youth centres were opened he said there was a lot of stigma and youth could not freely go to ask for a pregnancy tests or family planning but now they go there freely anytime.
Mr Kibindo said the centres are also giving the youth an opportunity to learn new ventures and join like the Youth advisory council, Kilifi Youth Parliament Assembly, children’s parliament among other many opportunities.
Since the time the program started, he said DSW has been working with many other organizations which now have confidence with the youth through the youth centres and it will help in the sustainability of the program even beyond its lifeline.
“Initially there was a lot of fear and stigma among youth who did not want to associate themselves with the normal facilities, so the youth-friendly centre has provided an opportunity for the adolescents to be referred to the main facility to even youth-friendly service providers,” he said.
The county government of Kilifi he said had now trained its health workers on how to provide youth-friendly services on sexual reproductive health adding that now youth go to hospital freely to talk about SRHS.
Ferdinand Mose from DSW said they first looked for the youth and formed groups and trained them on how to make strategic plans which have helped them build the youth empowerment centres.
He said they also trained them on policies such as finance management, organisational management and formed management teams before giving them money for championing youth issues and engaging the county government to address the youth issues.
“As you have seen the program is coming to an end the donor is very happy but we also trained them on resource mobilisation skills to help them fundraise, we helped them write winning proposals to donors,” he said.
Through that knowledge he said even with the exit of SLALE both Kilifi and West Pokot where the programs were implemented the youth can still continue sustaining the program,” he said.
In Kilifi he said some groups such as Pwani Youth Network and West Pokot have begun accessing funds from other donors because of the knowledge.
*This article was written by Ramadhan Kambi for Uzalendo News. Email: uzalendonews24@gmail.com to submit your story.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL
