“I’ve seen many youths, their parents and teachers changing their attitude towards sexual reproductive health and I’m proud to be a part of that.”

Amu is a Central Executive Committee Youth Member and Alternative Youth to Governing Council Member, for FPAN in Nepal.

“Having been a volunteer with the Family Planning Association of Nepal for the past five years, I have seen how effective youth programmes can change a community’s negative attitudes around sexuality, gender and rights.

“Once I visited a Youth Friendly Service (YFS) Project in the Kapilvastu Branch, and I met a 20-year-old man who was very shy and could not speak about sexuality and his own sexual and reproductive health problems.

The project enabled him to get counselling and afterwards he joined the branch as a peer educator.

Now, he confidently talks about sexuality and discusses issues such as HIV/AIDS/STIs, masturbation, and condom use for dual protection with his peers. He even guided sex workers to use condoms and get tested for STIs.”