Imagine an East and Southern Africa where young people thrive, where all adolescents and young people aged 10 to 24 are healthy, productive and empowered. This is the vision of the Safeguard Young People programme, which works with youth to equip them with comprehensive knowledge and skills relating to their sexuality, rights and health-seeking behaviours. Its goal is to ensure that young people are free from sexually transmitted infections including HIV, unintended pregnancies, child marriages and gender-based violence. At the heart of the programme is the belief that young people need to be supported holistically in their own diverse and often complex environments so they can make informed decisions and realize their full potential.
This brochure celebrates SYP's ten years of significant achievements for adolescents and young people in East and Southern Africa. This includes supporting 17 million learners to access inclusive and quality comprehensive sexuality education in school; reaching 14 million young people with sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and HIV services, more than 21,000 service providers trained on the provision of adolescent and youth-friendly services; and supporting over 1,300 health facilities to offer adolescent and youth-friendly services.
More than 280 district and national youth networks were supported and are functional, and the capacity of 18,000 young people has been built in leadership, advocacy and youth development. In addition, 40 million exposures of young people to SRH information and education through online and offline social and behaviour change communication campaigns and community-based CSE programming have been recorded. Moreover, 275,000 boys and girls have been educated on how to respond to the effects of climate change, environment and disaster risks as they relate to sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV, GBV and well-being.
