Non-formal networks have proven to be one of the most effective ways to reach young people with reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention messages and services, especially for youth who are not in school. Out-of-school youth are a diverse group, including those who have completed school, those who have dropped out, those who have jobs, and girls who are married or have been forced to quit school because they are pregnant or have babies.
How can reproductive health and HIV programs targeting young people reach such a diverse group? To address this question, YouthNet published a Youth Issues Paper on the topic of reaching out-of-school youth with reproductive health and HIV information and services.
One of YouthNet's goals is to assist programs that work with youth to add reproductive health and HIV services into existing programs. Some important international organizations have begun that process, such as the YMCA and YWCA, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, and the Boy Scouts. But much remains to be done with these mainstream groups as well as with sports clubs, gangs, and other informal groups of young people.
YMCA -- With more than 120 autonomous national movements, the YMCA reaches more than 40 million youth a year. Many national groups are involved in reproductive health of youth. The YMCA of South Africa, for example, receives support from UNFPA and others; the YMCA "New Choices for a New Africa Program" reaches more than 50,000 youth in four African countries. For more information on how to link with YMCAs in your area, visit http://www.ymcaworldservice.org.
World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and World Scouting Movement — The largest girls organization in the world, WAGGGS undertakes a number of programs to address reproductive health and HIV, including a campaign to address teenage pregnancy (For more info, click here.) The World Organization of the Scout Movement includes many local WAGGGS and boy scouts organizations throughout the world. To visit their site, click here. (For more info on WAGGGS and their programs, click here -- PDF, 1.2MB.)
To read more about a joint WAGGGS/Family Health International program for adolescent refugees -- a comprehensive training and peer education project that allows young women to earn a merit badge in reproductive health --click here.
Using Scouting as a Vehicle for Reaching Out-of-School Youth (PATH, 1999) describes efforts by the Kenya Scouts Assocation and PATH to reach out-of-school youth with a family life skills (FLS) curriculum in Kenya,where the number of school-age youth who do not attend school equals the number who are in school.
Saving a Generation: Ethiopian Youth Rally to Prevent HIV/AIDS (Family Health International, 1997). This article describes a three-year effort to bring HIV/AIDS prevention education to out-of-school youth in six urban areas in Ethiopia, using innovative methods to locate the program's target population.
Education Empowers Zambian Youth (Youth Activists Organization). This article shares lessons learned from a "Youth Football and Sexual Reproductive Health Camp" targeting 14- to 24-year-old boys and their parents in five Zambian districts. The football camp promotes male responsibility in sexual and reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS prevention, by integrating educational messages into football (soccer) training and competition.
Peer Education with Gang Members: Protecting Life and Health (Homies Unidos, 1999). Homies Unidos, an organization created in 1996 in El Salvador by rival gang members who came together to find a better and safer life without violence, uses gang members familiar with the lifestyle, slang, and codes of conduct of gangs, to reach their own peers, in part to promote healthier behaviors and prevent STIs.
