PIH Drills 420 Peer Educators in Neno

The 420 peer educators drawn from all the 14 Neno district health centres The 420 peer educators drawn from all the 14 Neno district health centres - pic by Steve Kalungwe

In a bid to promote sexual reproductive health and rights of adolescents in Neno district, Partners in Health has trained 420 youths as peer educators to act as agents of change.

PIH Community Health Director, Joel Suzi, says there is a need to challenge leaders to take up a leading role in protecting rights of the youths if the country is to benefit from various skills possessed by the youths.

"There is a need for leaders to invest in the youths through among other ways educating them on sexual reproductive health, in this way they will come to understand how their bodies function and find means of preventing unplanned pregnancies", said Suzi.

He further urged the trained 420 peer educators not to sit on the skills acquired but train others so that youths are made aware of their rights and be able to prevent teen pregnancies, early marriages and sexually transmitted infections.

Dambe Health Centre Clinical Technician, Alex Jelenje, has appealed to the youths to present to hospital any symptoms of sexually transmitted infections and never to tamper with evidence of forced sexual intercourse until seen by medical professionals.

" Most issues of sexual abuse are becoming tough to follow when evidence is tampered, so am asking anyone of you to remain intact if something uncalled for happens to you and report immediately to relevant authorities," lamented Jelenje.

Meanwhile, group village headman Ndoma is optimistic the training will act as an investment where the trained will transfer knowledge acquired to fellow youths, which in return will safeguard child rights.

The 420 peer educators drawn from all the 14 Neno district health centres, under the Skills BLA Youth Clubs, have been presented with certificates of completion.

The program was sponsored by the Global Affairs of Canada through Partners in Health.

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