{"id":4413,"date":"2025-09-09T09:00:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T09:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cheshiredisabilityservices.org\/?p=4413"},"modified":"2025-09-09T09:00:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T09:00:49","slug":"make-way-youth-taking-up-leadership-in-srhr-advocacy-for-better-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cheshiredisabilityservices.org\/?p=4413","title":{"rendered":"Make Way Youth Taking up leadership in SRHR Advocacy for better change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Intersectional Community Scorecard bridges the disconnect between the needs of marginalised young people and health services by empowering the young people to advocate for their sexual and reproductive health rights, and enhance the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of services.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the youth champions in the programme is Zaccheus Okoth. He credits the Intersectional Community Scorecard tool for providing youth a process and platform to openly engage with healthcare providers at the local hospital, a practice that was previously unheard of in the area. He explains: \u201cBy guiding us [youth] on how to identify our SRHR challenges, and clearly communicate the changes we need, using the Intersectional Scorecard tool not only made our concerns visible, it also led to joint action and commitment to solutions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intersectional community scorecard has also resulted in a demonstrable change in attitudes of the healthcare workers towards youth seeking SRH services, with youth noting that there\u2019s more privacy for those seeking SRH services, less waiting times and kinder personnel.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make Way youth taking up leadership<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In Seme Sub-county, Kisumu County where Okoth resides, a youth group, Kombewa Youth Health Champions, has emerged as a result of Make Way\u2019s youth engagement. Ranking high among their achievements, the group\u2019s advocacy efforts led to the establishment of a \u201cyouth desk\u201d inside the local healthcare facility, with a staff member whose tasks include listening to and documenting youth\u2019s concerns, as well as offering SRH advice when needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sylvester Adhaya, another Make Way youth champion was lead petitioner for Kisumu County in a policy memorandum on Kenya\u2019s Finance Bill 2024\/25 for Kisumu County. Together with his peers, they wrote proposed adjustments to the bill, advocating for among other SRHR issues, improved accessibility and inclusion for youth with disabilities among underserved communities of Kisumu. He admits that it was the programme\u2019s intersectional approach that challenged his perceptions of minoritised social identities, and gave him confidence to question the status quo.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Sylvester<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cAs a youth leader, I now embrace different identities and know that youth with disabilities and LGBTQ youth also deserve the community\u2019s protection, support, and SRHR access.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Make Way’s initiative is shifting perceptions of SRHR policies, budgets and services provisions in Kisumu County for the better. – Sylvester Adhaya, Make Way youth leader, Kisumu-Kenya<\/mark><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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\"Youth<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Once reclusive and apathetic, Adhaya explains that he did not see why he should be involved in public fora and activities. It was through attendance of Make Way\u2019s training workshops on public expression and policy participation that he built the skills and confidence to engage in civic leadership.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, Okoth, Adhaya and their peers have rolled out the Intersectional Community Scorecard in more communities, drafted intersectional policy analysis, engaged policy makers youth SRHR needs, and continue to lead meaningful youth engagement within their communities.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing poor SRHR might still be a huge task, and interventions not nearly enough, but the youth under the Make Way programme in Kisumu are leading in the right direction<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sylvester Adhaya and Zaccheus Okoth – Make Way<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Youth engagement in SRHR Advocacy: how the youth of Kisumu are taking charge of their sexual reproductive health – Make Way<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n

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The Intersectional Community Scorecard bridges the disconnect between the needs of marginalised young people and health services by empowering the young people to advocate for their sexual and reproductive health rights, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[105,66,126],"class_list":["post-4413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-make-way","tag-srhr","tag-youth-leadership"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheshiredisabilityservices.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheshiredisabilityservices.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheshiredisabilityservices.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheshiredisabilityservices.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheshiredisabilityservices.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cheshiredisabilityservices.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4417,"href":"https:\/\/cheshiredisabilityservices.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413\/revisions\/4417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheshiredisabilityservices.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheshiredisabilityservices.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheshiredisabilityservices.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheshiredisabilityservices.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}