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| UNFPA
at work in Eritrea Programme Highlights: Building from Scratch Providing Reproductive Health and Family Planning Services to Youth Population Education and Family welfare: Nothing Succeeds like Success Box: Profiles in Change: Two Women Who Make a Difference |
Providing Reproductive
Health and Family Planning Services to Youth The Youth Counselling Centre in Asmara, funded jointly by UNFPA and Norway’s Save the Children Fund, had only been open for six weeks in mid-December 1996, but already it was packed with children and young adults. This project, which Pam de Largy worked hard to implement, is so successful it is being used as a model for similar initiatives across the country. Run by an affable young doctor named Abraham Haile, the Centre provides adolescent counselling on STDs/AIDS, sexual health and advice on reproductive health and family planning. "Sexual subjects are often taboo for young people in Eritrea. So we have added a library and a recreation programme to our counselling and clinical services," explains Dr. Haile. "Adolescents can come in and read or play chess or basketball. When they need help or advice, we are here to provide it in a discreet and sensitive fashion. We have male and female counsellors, trained with UNFPA sponsorship, and a resident nurse and psychiatrist, also trained with UNFPA help. We want to open a small pharmacy and a laboratory capable of testing for STDs and perhaps even AIDS. "We already have over 40 clients for STD counselling and family planning, and, of course, all contraceptives are provided free of charge. Since Eritrean youth are too shy to ask for condoms, we put an open box in both toilets." "We know that some young people are sexually active. They must get appropriate information in order to protect their health and plan their lives," notes Pam de Largy. "Most young people don’t get sex education in the family, and programmes are only just beginning in schools. Here they can get reliable information and personal advice." The Centre’s theme is responsible behaviour. Counsellors encourage abstinence, and there is a special emphasis on providing girls with the confidence and negotiating skills to ‘say no’ and on teaching boys about responsible behaviour. "We have also published a sex education book for young people in Tigrinya, the local language. It was written by a physician and is very popular," says Pam. The Centre shows weekly videos on AIDS prevention, the role of families, and reproductive health, environment and population issues. Most sessions are packed with adolescents, who come to the Centre instead of lingering on the streets or staying home. Some 60 kilometers north of Asmara, through a parched and denuded landscape, the town of Keren sits in a valley, looking like some sleepy village on the Mediterranean. The only thing missing is the sea. Keren, the scene of heavy fighting during the war, is now participating in a UNFPA-funded initiative to educate local youth about STDs/AIDS, family planning, communicable diseases and female genital mutilation, which is still practiced in some rural communities. This programme is being coordinated by the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students. The Youth Centre, a former luxury resort, has rooms for counselling, a library and a recreation hall. Eleven people were trained in Asmara and have begun counselling work at the Centre. "One of the notable aspects of the information programme is that both girls and boys participate together," says Pam. "This way, they can learn about one another’s feelings and concerns." So far, the programme is limited to members of the National Union of Eritrean Workers, but UNFPA would like to extend the programme to outlets like clinics and sports clubs. When Pam de Largy visited, about 20 young people, all boys and one girl, had just finished viewing a Kenyan-produced video on AIDS. In the discussion that followed, it was obvious that most of them thought that AIDS was not a problem in Keren, only in the capital and some border towns. "This is one more reason why these information and counselling programmes are so important: they make these kids aware that there are problems right here in their own backyard, problems they can avoid if they are forearmed with knowledge." |
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