We disseminate appropriate SRHR information to the adolescents and young people, the parents, caretakers, community leaders, health workers and other community influencers. The information is usually age appropriate, culturally and religiously sensitive and we do this through;
Guided by the Simplified guide to SRHR communication to adolescents and young people in the community that was developed, printed and produced by NAYO. We mobilize parents, caretakers, and political, religious and cultural leaders using community health workers (CHWs) and local council structures to dialogue with them how to deal with SRH issues of young people and adolescents within their community. We equip each of the participants with a book in English or Luganda languages to guide their discusions with the adolescents and young people in their communities. This strategy ensures that they give culturally, religiously and age sensitive information to the adolescents and young people they reach. It also promotes sustainability.
We visit primary and secondary schools to give them age appropriate information regarding their sexual and reproductive health issues and encourage them to keep in school and also make the right choices about their lives.
We carry out home visits and dialogues targeting People Living with Disabilities, and their caretakers who have challenges in accessing health services with the intention of sharing SRH information during the visits, testing and referral for treatment at the NAYO Young People’s Clinic at a free cost.
We also carry out home visits to pregnant adolescents to give them information on danger signs during pregnancy and encourage them to go for antenatal care visits and deliver at a health care facility with skilled workers
Through the support from partners, we skill adolescent girls and young women in different skills responding to their needs like tailoring, hairdressing and bakery. We have a well-equipped tailoring space however for hair dressing and bakery training, we partner with existing business owners in the community to do on job training to the girls. We target the young mothers because they visibly have need to promote their livelihoods and for their children. In response to the adolescent girls and young women challenge of poor access to proper menstrual health information and products. NAYO developed and is producing the NAYO re-usable sanitary pads. These pads are distributed to the most vulnerable girls after a comprehensive session on menstrual hygiene management and how to keep the re-usable pads clean to avoid infection.
We carryout community engagements on sexual and gender based violence prevention and pathway for reporting of cases such as defilement, rape, domestic violence, denial of resources and sexual exploitation in collaboration with the Uganda police. We work hand in hand with Women’s Probono Initiative(WPI) in arresting of the perpetrators and following up on the legal action to seek justice for the victims.
We offer friendly, affordable and responsive services to the adolescents and young people through the NAYO Young People’s Clinic located at the NAYO Offices. At the clinic different services are provided to the young people ranging from general medical consultations and services, laboratory testing of STIs, and any other test needed by the young people. Sexually transmitted diseases are screened for free for the most vulnerable adolescents and young people and treatment initiated. Those found HIV positive are referred to Namulonge HC III for initiation of ART treatment.
We design on-job mentorship programs for health workers to be able to provide adolescent and youth friendly and responsive quality sexual and reproductive health care. We also work with district facilities to set up adolescents-friendly clinics / spaces where adolescents can access services without discrimination or delays.
We extend our services to the community to increase the reach. For every community activities we hold, we provide free screening for STD/STIs to those that are in need. We then refer those that turn out positive for services at the NAYO Young people’s clinic. For the people living with disability we offer free medical care services.
We link the adolescents and young people who have been violated and need justice to probono initiatives that offer free services for vulnerable women. For those who have challenges in reporting cases at the police station, we support them to do so and also follow up to ensure that Justice is served centered to the victim’s wish.
