Reaching vulnerable young people
In 2002, Britain’s Comic Relief provided a grant of £105,000 over 18 months to enable IPPF and local Guatemalan partner organizations Casa Alianza and APROFAM to start a project to address the sexual and reproductive health needs of street children.
Before this ground-breaking new project began, very little was documented about the sexual health needs of street children in Central America at all.
In addition, most medical service providers in Guatemala had not been trained in - or were sensitive to - the needs and rights of street children, nor was there a strong referral network in place to increase the capacity and infrastructure of local organizations to provide these services.
This pioneering project addressed the gaps in sexual health outreach and services and, most importantly, it ensured that street children themselves played a central role in decision-making throughout its design, implementation and evaluation.
What did we learn?
Successes of this project:
- went way beyond meeting the specific sexual and reproductive health needs of street children
- built networks and partnerships within Guatemala to offer educational and general health services
- empowered young street children through leadership training and decision-making
- raised awareness within the government and public health care system of the special needs of these vulnerable young people
The project has also identified key strategies for working with the most at-risk youth in Latin American society and is already being hailed as a model to show how innovative sexual and reproductive health programmes can be the catalyst for changing young lives.