Day in and day out together with young people and other interested people around the world, we are making a difference at our local level and ultimately changing the face of the world gradually. Social Advocacy Youth for Peace (SAYP) has engaged youths in spearheading education on the MDGs and related matters such as; migration whose impact on the youth continue to boggle the minds of policy makers. We do this through responding to calls to involve youth in global events or through our own initiated events.
SAYP is currently running five programs in Rwandan Communities.
We organise the youth in anti-HIV/AIDS clubs to promote debates on sensitive issues in a friendlier environment. Interactive methods are used in weekly health education sessions conducted by volunteers of Social Advocacy Youth for Peace.The main activities conducted in the framework of the HIV Prevention program are:
- Community education: SAYP is currently performing HIV education sessions in primary schools and in non-schooling youth. SAYP has established 15 Anti-AIDS youth clubs and provide them with HIV education. The teaching program consists of a module which is developped in a series of education sessions. The module comprises Anatomy and Physiology of the genitals, methods of HIV transmission, symptoms, prevention methods, HIV virus and AIDS, opportunist infections, voluntary testing, treatment and care of people living with HIV/AIDS, Culture and sex related taboos, Gender and HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and family planning. Upon completion of this module, the youth make a club peer-educators. Those clubs of peer educators are thereafter involved community education and sensitization about HIV/AIDS.
- Income generating projects with Youth clubs Poverty and low income have always been pointed out to be the main factors that induce young people to engage in unhealthy sexual behaviors. It is therefore obvious that the issue of income needs to be adressed if people are to embrace life promoting behaviors.
Malaria education targets community adults and primary school kids. SAYP volunteers meet men and women after community work and organize interactive teaching sessions. These teaching sessions typically last for one hour and cover basic information about malaria: the life cycle of vector mosquitos, transmission of malaria, prevention methods, treatments and the role of the community in the malaria eradication process.
A particular community outreach program has been designed to encourage people to pay health insurance as part of efforts to help poor people to access medical care services. For the project`s effectiveness, SAYP organizes training for local leaders and health workers on Malaria prevention, home based management of fever and communication skill.
The cholera, dysentery, Diarrhoea, intestinal worms and other water-borne diseases cause unnecessary suffering to Rwandan villagers. These diseases are spread by unhygienic practices, for example drinking unclean water and using unsanitary latrine facilities, and thus are preventable. Children, in particular, suffer from hygiene-related diseases.The hygiene , water and sanitation Program is providing the Hygiene Education to the most vulnerable villagers with adequate latrines.
The income generating projects are designed to improve the overall living conditions of the villagers. During many education sessions, SAYP volunteers have noticed that although the villagers understood the importance of using mosquito nets, soap, condoms and other health promoting facilities, very few of them could afford them.
Thereafter,SAYP has initiated and supported a number of income generating projects in our target community.
1. Rabbit Rearing Project The concept of the project is to reduce malnutrition in the village by consuming high protein meat and to raise rabbits to sell for meat at local market SAYP also hopes to organize educational visits to established rabbit rearing projects to give the villagers an opportunity to gain some expertise.
2. Fair Trade Promotion, Coffee growing project The direction for the coffee Growers Cooperative is to ultimately produce A1/A2 grade coffee for sale on an international market to provide an income for the members of the co-operative. SAYP plans to facilitate the construction of a coffee washing station by 2012 to enable processing of the coffee cherries.
3. The Bee Keeping Project The bee keeping project aimed to improve the income of local widowers. SAYP has provided them with skills and capacity to produce, process and sell honey as way of rural poverty reduction.
4. Small scale projects framework SAYP provides technical and financial assistance to a series of small scale projects of the local clubs and cooperatives. The small scale projects frame-set include cassava growing, vegetables growing, rice growing and handcrafts projects.
The program has been set up to address problems of gender imbalance and to promote gender equality initiatives.Frequently girls are underperforming in schools, particularly in science and related subjects. In Rwanda, young girls are often burdened with duties at home, such as cooking and caring for younger siblings. In extreme cases, girls can be forced to drop out of school for domestic work. Girls also suffer from a culturised inferiority complex and weakness in decision making. The Gender Empowerment program includes also a component of sexual education in young people.
1. The main activity of the Gender Empowerment Program is to hold an annual workshop aimed to empower and educate young people from the secondary schools of the southern province about gender equality and HIV/AIDS. During the workshop, outstanding speakers and facilitators lead a series of seminars on a number of key topics, related to sexual health and empowerment of women. Other activities of the pyramid workshop include discussion sessions , drama and Cultural exchange. The information given in the workshop is supported by an accompanying information pack, given in the form of a magazine, which provides written information on all the topics discussed in the workshop. When the students are back to their respective schools we recommend them to establish the Anti-HIV AIDS clubs and gender. The clubs are followed up by SAYP volunteers to help them spread the knowledge acquired during the workshop.
2. Educational visit and Follow-up of workshop: In the framework of workshop follow-up, volunteers of SAYP visit Anti-HIV/AIDS clubs and gender clubs in the target secondary schools. The clubs serve as an environment for the content of the workshop to be transmitted to more youth by peer education. The clubs operate by designing performances of song, dance and poetry in their free time, which are delivered to the rest of the school students. The Educational visit and follow-up are necessary in order to prepare and improve the next workshop and it is also an opportunity for the youth to ask questions they may have related to the topics covered in the previous workshop.
The program has been established to respond to the problem linked for not respecting the rights of human being such as violence of young ladies and mothers that may lead to hiv/aids contamination and death due to insufficient knowledge of people.
Though increased accessibility of human rights information and skills in the rural villages, it is apparent that young people will have an understanding of exactly what is necessary to have a good society without any problem of illness and infections related to violence. We are planning to emphasize on young ladies and mothers because they are the most to undergo such problems.
The program specific objectives are:
· To promote human rights in the communities by providing human rights principles (universality, indivisibility, equality and non discrimination).
· To fight against all violence aspects and inequality through communities where the process will occur in 3 parties;action, assessment and analysis.
· To create youth clubs for human rights awareness programs and peace building methodologies.
· To promote knowledge in the field of human rights in schools, institutions and in all the country.
· To organize public seminars and meetings for talking about human rights in Rwandan society.
. To give the shares social and contribution to enhance human rights in the vision of development of our country.
The program seeks to eliminate continued dependence on external support in claiming the rights. It also seeks to evolve sustainable process of development or rights achievement by building capacity of, and empowering the people to claim their rights.
The application system comprise 2 steps:
Ø Causality analysis:it involves the identification of immediate, underlying and basic causes of a problem. This is guided by an explicit conceptual framework and it results in a list of rights that are either being violated or are at risk of being violated.
Ø Pattern analysis: it consists on identifying key actors then claim holders and their duty-bearers where individuals enter into roles of both claim-holders and duty-bearers.
SAYP is currently running five programs in Rwandan Communities.
- HIV/AIDS AWARENESS, REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAM
We organise the youth in anti-HIV/AIDS clubs to promote debates on sensitive issues in a friendlier environment. Interactive methods are used in weekly health education sessions conducted by volunteers of Social Advocacy Youth for Peace.The main activities conducted in the framework of the HIV Prevention program are:
- Community education: SAYP is currently performing HIV education sessions in primary schools and in non-schooling youth. SAYP has established 15 Anti-AIDS youth clubs and provide them with HIV education. The teaching program consists of a module which is developped in a series of education sessions. The module comprises Anatomy and Physiology of the genitals, methods of HIV transmission, symptoms, prevention methods, HIV virus and AIDS, opportunist infections, voluntary testing, treatment and care of people living with HIV/AIDS, Culture and sex related taboos, Gender and HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and family planning. Upon completion of this module, the youth make a club peer-educators. Those clubs of peer educators are thereafter involved community education and sensitization about HIV/AIDS.
- Income generating projects with Youth clubs Poverty and low income have always been pointed out to be the main factors that induce young people to engage in unhealthy sexual behaviors. It is therefore obvious that the issue of income needs to be adressed if people are to embrace life promoting behaviors.
- MALARIA PREVENTION PROGRAM
Malaria education targets community adults and primary school kids. SAYP volunteers meet men and women after community work and organize interactive teaching sessions. These teaching sessions typically last for one hour and cover basic information about malaria: the life cycle of vector mosquitos, transmission of malaria, prevention methods, treatments and the role of the community in the malaria eradication process.
A particular community outreach program has been designed to encourage people to pay health insurance as part of efforts to help poor people to access medical care services. For the project`s effectiveness, SAYP organizes training for local leaders and health workers on Malaria prevention, home based management of fever and communication skill.
- HYGIENE, WATER AND SANITATION PROGRAM
The cholera, dysentery, Diarrhoea, intestinal worms and other water-borne diseases cause unnecessary suffering to Rwandan villagers. These diseases are spread by unhygienic practices, for example drinking unclean water and using unsanitary latrine facilities, and thus are preventable. Children, in particular, suffer from hygiene-related diseases.The hygiene , water and sanitation Program is providing the Hygiene Education to the most vulnerable villagers with adequate latrines.
- INCOME GENERATION PROGRAM
The income generating projects are designed to improve the overall living conditions of the villagers. During many education sessions, SAYP volunteers have noticed that although the villagers understood the importance of using mosquito nets, soap, condoms and other health promoting facilities, very few of them could afford them.
Thereafter,SAYP has initiated and supported a number of income generating projects in our target community.
1. Rabbit Rearing Project The concept of the project is to reduce malnutrition in the village by consuming high protein meat and to raise rabbits to sell for meat at local market SAYP also hopes to organize educational visits to established rabbit rearing projects to give the villagers an opportunity to gain some expertise.
2. Fair Trade Promotion, Coffee growing project The direction for the coffee Growers Cooperative is to ultimately produce A1/A2 grade coffee for sale on an international market to provide an income for the members of the co-operative. SAYP plans to facilitate the construction of a coffee washing station by 2012 to enable processing of the coffee cherries.
3. The Bee Keeping Project The bee keeping project aimed to improve the income of local widowers. SAYP has provided them with skills and capacity to produce, process and sell honey as way of rural poverty reduction.
4. Small scale projects framework SAYP provides technical and financial assistance to a series of small scale projects of the local clubs and cooperatives. The small scale projects frame-set include cassava growing, vegetables growing, rice growing and handcrafts projects.
- GENDER EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM
The program has been set up to address problems of gender imbalance and to promote gender equality initiatives.Frequently girls are underperforming in schools, particularly in science and related subjects. In Rwanda, young girls are often burdened with duties at home, such as cooking and caring for younger siblings. In extreme cases, girls can be forced to drop out of school for domestic work. Girls also suffer from a culturised inferiority complex and weakness in decision making. The Gender Empowerment program includes also a component of sexual education in young people.
1. The main activity of the Gender Empowerment Program is to hold an annual workshop aimed to empower and educate young people from the secondary schools of the southern province about gender equality and HIV/AIDS. During the workshop, outstanding speakers and facilitators lead a series of seminars on a number of key topics, related to sexual health and empowerment of women. Other activities of the pyramid workshop include discussion sessions , drama and Cultural exchange. The information given in the workshop is supported by an accompanying information pack, given in the form of a magazine, which provides written information on all the topics discussed in the workshop. When the students are back to their respective schools we recommend them to establish the Anti-HIV AIDS clubs and gender. The clubs are followed up by SAYP volunteers to help them spread the knowledge acquired during the workshop.
2. Educational visit and Follow-up of workshop: In the framework of workshop follow-up, volunteers of SAYP visit Anti-HIV/AIDS clubs and gender clubs in the target secondary schools. The clubs serve as an environment for the content of the workshop to be transmitted to more youth by peer education. The clubs operate by designing performances of song, dance and poetry in their free time, which are delivered to the rest of the school students. The Educational visit and follow-up are necessary in order to prepare and improve the next workshop and it is also an opportunity for the youth to ask questions they may have related to the topics covered in the previous workshop.
- Human rights and peace program
The program has been established to respond to the problem linked for not respecting the rights of human being such as violence of young ladies and mothers that may lead to hiv/aids contamination and death due to insufficient knowledge of people.
Though increased accessibility of human rights information and skills in the rural villages, it is apparent that young people will have an understanding of exactly what is necessary to have a good society without any problem of illness and infections related to violence. We are planning to emphasize on young ladies and mothers because they are the most to undergo such problems.
The program specific objectives are:
· To promote human rights in the communities by providing human rights principles (universality, indivisibility, equality and non discrimination).
· To fight against all violence aspects and inequality through communities where the process will occur in 3 parties;action, assessment and analysis.
· To create youth clubs for human rights awareness programs and peace building methodologies.
· To promote knowledge in the field of human rights in schools, institutions and in all the country.
· To organize public seminars and meetings for talking about human rights in Rwandan society.
. To give the shares social and contribution to enhance human rights in the vision of development of our country.
The program seeks to eliminate continued dependence on external support in claiming the rights. It also seeks to evolve sustainable process of development or rights achievement by building capacity of, and empowering the people to claim their rights.
The application system comprise 2 steps:
Ø Causality analysis:it involves the identification of immediate, underlying and basic causes of a problem. This is guided by an explicit conceptual framework and it results in a list of rights that are either being violated or are at risk of being violated.
Ø Pattern analysis: it consists on identifying key actors then claim holders and their duty-bearers where individuals enter into roles of both claim-holders and duty-bearers.