Young people's participation - UNICEF in action
UNICEF sees young people as vital allies in its support to the development process of Mozambique. The promotion of young people’s participation in this process is thus a main strategy of the Country Programme of Cooperation. UNICEF aims at creating space for young people to express their views and to be listened to. Young people are also directly involved in the implementation of programme activities. The fight against HIV/AIDS is a major example for this involvement. UNICEF supports young people’s active participation both in the provision of accurate information on how to prevent an infection and in life skills training aimed at helping young people take informed decisions about their life. An important channel for this is the programme “My future is my choice”, which is implemented through the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Sofala, Manica and Zambézia provinces. The main actors are young peer educators, who discuss questions of love and sexuality with other adolescents participating in the programme. Up to now, 325 peer educators have been trained. By the end of 2004, they had worked with more than 12,000 young people between 12 and 15 years. Peer educators furthermore link up with Youth Friendly Health Services (YFHS), where young people are provided with STD screening and treatment, HIV voluntary and confidential counselling and testing, family planning and antenatal care. Here again young people play a crucial role as they offer individual counselling and group activities. In addition, UNICEF is supporting the Child-to-Child Radio programme broadcast by Radio Moçambique. Currently, Radio Moçambique broadcasts 24 weekly radio programmes all over the country, which are developed, produced and presented by children and young people. (link to brief on child-to-child radio). UNICEF is now also supporting a similar programme broadcast by the Mozambican TV station TVM.
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