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Tales from Tanzania: Youth Health Meetings are Underway at Ilulangulu Secondary School

On July 14th, we held our first youth health meeting, bringing together nine Connect to Learn (CTL) students from Ilulangulu Secondary School and seven youth health volunteers.  The volunteers are motivated young people aged 19 - 26 who spend time in the clinics throughout the Mbola cluster, providing an extra pair of hands wherever they are needed.  They will likely serve as excellent mentors for our CTL students, who are a bit younger (14-16) and have not had as many opportunities for hands-on experience.

Everyone introduced themselves, and we were delighted to find that many of the participants would like to become doctors or nurses-- they were in the right place!  We did a series of activities which gave participants an opportunity to express what the primary health concerns of young people are in the community.  Most of them were related to sexual education and pregnancy... the fear of having to drop out of school due to pregnancy, STIs, and complications during pregnancy.  Teenage pregnancy is one of the most common reasons that girls drop out in this region.  We hope that this group will be able raise awareness of this fact and do something to help change it!

We then held our second youth health meeting on July 21st, and the enthusiasm and promise from the first meeting only grew... To my surprise, the number of participants increased, from 16 to 22!  I was proud that 13 CTL students came and, despite being younger than the volunteers, actively participated in the day's activities.  Groups of young people drew maps of their communities, identifying places where youth congregate and where they  do and do not like to spend time.  We discovered that there are few places for young people to go outside of school and (for older youth) the disco and bar.  A youth center would certainly be a popular place here-- and would importantly give young people somewhere to go that is safe and where they could get health information.  The computer labs at both secondary schools will serve as an important first step in giving students a place to access information and explore what they are curious in.

The participants also expressed frustration that young people are not respected very much in the community.  Through this group, I'm hopeful that CTL students-- especially girls -- will gain critical leadership skills and show the community that they have the knowledge, insight and potential to help themselves, their families, their villages and their nations succeed.

Hannah Ayers is a graduate student in the SIPA program at Columbia University and is volunteering for her second term Internship with Connect To Learn to provide on-the-ground support for our programs in the Millennium Village of Mbola in western Tanzania.