A youth-led advocacy campaign to address sexual and reproductive health challenges affecting young people in the streets in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe has an approximated population of 750 young people (10 to 24 years) living in the streets1. These young people are subject to recurrent violations of their sexual and reproductive health rights and live in want of acceptance, care and access to amenities that constitute the basic minimum to ensure their survival. Their lack adequate and accurate information on HIV and AIDS, access to critical reproductive health commodities and are largely economically disempowered. It was in light of this, and other substantial factors, that the Zimbabwe Young Peoples Network on HIV and AIDS carried out an advocacy campaign from the 20th of June 2011 to the 5th of August 2011 in an effort to address the sexual and reproductive health challenges affecting young people in the streets. The network is a youth-led programme convened by the National AIDS Council to coordinate youth related interventions in the field of HIV and AIDS and advocate for the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people aged 10 to 24 years. The campaign was carried out in three provinces of the country with the highest proportion of young people in the streets. It had three prongs which constituted specific activities in each province. The first were capacity building workshops for young people in the streets on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and consequent identification of related needs and barriers specific to the participants. The second were advocacy meetings with policy makers, relevant government ministries, organizations and homes working with young people in the streets, community leaders, youth-led groups and young people in the streets to share findings of the capacity building workshops and agree on recommendations and actions to be taken to address them. The third was the provision of sanitary ware and hygiene packages to girls and young women in the streets and the mobilization and provision of male circumcision services and care necessities for young men in the streets as well as provision of HIV Testing and Counselling services for both young men and women. A total of 119 young men and women in the streets were tested for HIV, 32 young men underwent circumcision and 376 young women and men in the streets and stakeholders working with young people in the streets took part in the capacity building workshops countrywide. The Ministries of Local Government; Youth Development; Education; Health and Child Welfare; Higher and Tertiary Education; and Home Affairs also agreed to address identified issues affecting young people in the streets and give feedback by June 16 2012. Civil society resolved to turn the campaign into a year-long initiative and is working in partnership with young people in the streets to scale up the campaign to all parts of the country and achieve significant, visible and quantifiable results in the improvement of the sexual and reproductive health of young people in the streets.

Streets Ahead Survey 2011