OAY COVID-19 Response: #Solidarity4Humanity Campaign
Since the COVID 19 pandemic struck the world, many challenges ranging from health matters, economic strains, and social/cultural issues have emerged. Health matters such as teen pregnancies have increased in the recent past, and most stakeholders are coming together to fight this menace.
Economically, most youths and community members have lost their jobs, leading to economic strains to get their essentials such as food and necessities to the young girls such as sanitary towels.
Socially/culturally, it has affected some important sessions where the youths and adolescents could be sharing and learning life skills and healthy living. Against this backdrop, OAY convened a national survey and strategic social media engagements whose result targeted at harnessing young people’s power to save humanity, not youth simply as vulnerable populations but as core actors in all related processes against the fight.
The campaign #Solidarity4Humanity Campaign developed a model in creating a platform for accessing essential information on sexual reproductive health for adolescents and youths, as well as economically empowering them and building their skills. They develop these skills through training where they learn about the liquid soap making process as an income generation activity, which aids in financial stability, and deters their attention away from other activities. We have managed to train over 700 young mothers in the Nyando sub-county, Muhoroni, and Kisumu East informal settlement (Nyalenda, Manyatta). Over a dozen young women, mostly single mothers, have since taken up the initiative and are also involved in peer to peer education as they earn something to sustain them. The campaign is ongoing and more details will be updated here.
Joseph Ojuki taking the youth through the soap making process in Kisumu as part of OAY COVID-A9 Response.