Amref Health Africa has urged youths in Traditional Authority (T/A) Makanjira to access youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services to avoid contracting sexually transmitted infections.
Speaking on Friday at Mpiripiri in the district during a football and netball bonanza to promote youth-friendly health services, Amref Health Africa Mangochi project officer Remmitor Bonga said they wanted more adolescents aged between 10 and 19 to get sexual and reproductive health services.
He said during the event, Makanjira Health Centre provided HIV testing and counselling services to adolescents.
“We also trained youth-friendly health services, focal persons, in health facilities how to work with the adolescents in their facilities,” said Bonga.
He said they want to scale up the uptake of family planning services among adolescents.
Group village head Makanjira commended Amref Health Africa for promoting sexual and reproductive health among adolescents in the district.
“We will encourage the youth to access family planning services. We thank Amref Health Africa for the initiative because it has addressed school dropout, especially among girls,” he said.
Leaders of Tomorrow Youth Club member Faheemah Dyress said Amref Health Africa’s interventions were in line with what their organisation plan to implement in T/A Makanjira.
“We plan to fight child marriages and urge girls to seek family planning services to prevent unplanned pregnancies,” she said.
With funding from the United States-based Comic Relief, Amref is implementing a two-year Dance for Change Project to promote access to youth-friendly health services and fight child marriages in T/As Makanjira and Bwananyambi in the district.
Article first published on https://mwnation.com/amref-africa-promotes-reproductive-health/