TRAINED, EMPOWERED AND EMPOWERING OTHERS …

Six years ago, Stephen Openy had an encounter with Y.E.A.H that completely changed his life, and that of others. At the time, he was working with The Uganda Red Cross Society in Jinja, a community with so many young people whose behaviour was putting them at risk of acquiring HIV AIDS. He says, “So many young girls were involved in something for something love. It was fashionable to have a sugar daddy. And no one cared. The young men were drinking themselves out of school and the employed were spending their salaries on booze. It never occurred to me even once that I could be an instrument of behaviour change.”

However, Stephen’s attitude was to change drastically when Y.E.A.H went to Jinja to launch the Something for Something Love campaign. Right from its inception, Y.E.A.H works with different organisations and youth leaders known as Young People’s Advisory Groups (YAGs) to implement Y.E.A.H campaigns at the community level through the Y.E.A.H implementation unit that is managed by Communication for Development Foundation Uganda (CDFU). Stephen and other young people in Jinja were trained as lead trainers who in turn trained peer educators attached to Community Based Organisations. After the training, the peer educators conduct interactive community sessions with young people addressing behaviours that put young people at risk of HIV which include alcohol abuse, something for something, violence against women and having multiple sexual partners at the same time. Stephen says “It was during the training that the confidence and zeal was rooted in me, that I could surely do a lot in my community to ensure that young people lived healthy reproductive lives. At the end of the training, I was equipped with knowledge to help me make informed decisions about my sexuality but also help the young people with challenging situations back in Jinja.”

Stephen is quick to add that if he had never met Y.E.A.H, he would not be the instrument of behaviour change that he is today. At the end of the training, Stephen was not going to sit and let this accumulated wealth of knowledge go to waste. Having been empowered to reach out to the young people, he set out to make the same difference in young people’s lives. “To date, I have been able to train about 200 peer educators and 150 trainers. These have in turn trained and reached out to more young people. Now, that is the impact that I have steered, thanks to Y.E.A.H.”

To find out more about Y.E.A.H training click here.