Empowering youth with accurate information on sexual reproductive health
Young people admire accuracy and privacy when receiving health information, particularly sexual reproductive health information.
UNESCO’s Education for Health and Wellbeing flagship is supporting the Ministry of Health (Directorate of Preventive services) to enhance access to sexual reproductive health information for young people, through the Ministry of Health’s Afya Call Centre (199 Toll-free number).
This intervention aims to uphold the Integration of Sexual Reproductive Health information into the existing Ministry of Health 199 menu, in which young people will be able to make a free call and get current reliable information about SRH topics. Furthermore, the service will allow young people to privately access information giving it a unique feature that differentiates the service from most popular information platforms. Additionally, this service will link young people with SRH experts in case they need further clarification and linkage to services.
During the inception meeting that took place in Dodoma on 7th March 2024 between UNESCO and MoH Directorate of Preventive Services where the roadmap and agreements for implementation were set, UNESCO’s EHW country lead Mr. Mathias Luhanya remarked:
We believe that when young people are equipped with accurate, culturally appropriate knowledge on SRH, they will be able to avoid risk taking practices, become healthy and contribute positively to their communities and nation at large. This service will broaden information coverage and enhance young people’s access to SRH & GBV education and information whenever they are
To achieve smooth implementation of this activity, a few steps will be taken, including the production of updated SRH content to suit the youth context, configuration of SRH content in the 199 system, capacity strengthening of the call centre staff, capacity strengthening of SRH experts to whom the youth concerns and further questions will be referred to.
We are happy to work together to ensure that young people have access to accurate information on SRH, HIV and GBV prevention education
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