This year IPPF started the initiative ' Girls Decide: Stand up for choice on sex and pregnancy.'

We ran a competition for young IPPF volunteers to submit proposals for small scale projects or activities that empower young women and girls.

We received 40 applications from all regions.
A group of 5 external youth reviewers helped to shortlist the applications.

It was challenging to select the winners, because there were so many great ideas. It is very encouraging to learn about all the wonderful youth-led work that is being implemented across the Federation.

The winners are:

• Prima Gynda project
  Czech Family Planning Association’s youth group 
  Work with gynaecologists to improve youth-friendly services
• Girl Talk project
  Dominica Planned Parenthood Association’s Youth Advocacy Movement 
  Aims to empower young women, especially young mothers. They will organise 3 weekend camps for young women and training sessions with school staff around the theme of sexual and reproductive rights. They will also produce a documentary film to be used as a teaching and advocacy tool.
• SRHR – access and utilization by young females in Malawi project
  Family Planning Association of Malawi’s Youth Advocacy Movement 
  Training Youth Action Movement (YAM) members in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), engaging in community dialogue and organising a girls’ football tournament to raise awareness about young women’s sexual rights.
• Contraception – it’s our choice
  Health Education and Research Association (H.E.R.A) in Macedonia
  Disseminate accurate information about modern forms of contraception to young people by producing an educational film. The film will be used in peer education programmes.
• Au Coeur d’une jeune fille
  Youth Action Movement of the Association Togolaise pour le Bien Etre Familial
  Training peer educators, producing radio and television programmes and training for school nurses in youth friendly services.
• Promoting Girls’ Sexual Rights project
  Mongolian Family Welfare Association
  Partnering with the Princess Club, a club of young female social work students.
  Raise awareness about sexual rights among adolescent girls and provide social work services to adolescent mothers.
• Intensive Sexual Reproductive Health Education for Girls project
  Young people at the Namibia Planned Parenthood Association
  Participatory process for developing information, education and communication and media materials on young women’s SRHR.
• What Girls Want project
  Committee of young volunteers from the Penang Family Health Development Association 
  A series of dialogue sessions, interactive workshops, mobile phone video clip production, and high-school debates on adolescent SRHR.
• Know your body, know your rights project
  South Asia Regional Youth Network will work in partnership with the YP Foundation and the Global Youth Coalition on HIV & AIDS 
  Capacity building training for young people from across India on positive approaches to young people’s sexuality and rights. The capacity building programme will feed into a larger annual national festival.
• G.E.T Peers Project
  Waray-Waray Youth Advocates will work with the Family Planning Organisation of the Philippines 
  Create peer counsellors’ groups to increase awareness and understanding of SRHR among young women.
• I [heart] being a girl project
  Youth Sexual Awareness of Europe (YSAFE) 
  Collect video interviews with young women to share reflections on their experiences of being a girl. The videos will be uploaded to a special youtube channel; girls from across the world will be able to add their own videos. YSAFE will also use other forms of social-media to generate positive discussions about sexuality and young women’s SRHR.

Updates from the groups

• The youth division of H.E.R.A. – Health Education and Research Association Macedonia produced an excellent film called 'Decision' to dispel myths about oral contraceptives. The film will be screened during educational workshops at high schools, H.E.R.A’s youth friendly clinic and other partner NGOs.

• The Czech Family Planning Association’s youth group is establishing a network of youth-friendly gynaecologists.

• The Dominica Planned Parenthood Association’s Youth Advocacy Movement will organise trainings for young women and school staff of SRR and will produce a documentary film as a teaching and advocacy tool. 

• The Family Planning Association of Malawi’s Youth Advocacy Movement held community dialogues with chiefs, head teachers, parents, religious leaders and the YAM members to examine issues related to girls’ SRR in various communities.

• The Youth Action Movement of the Association Togolaise pour le Bien Etre Familial produced radio programmes to discuss sexual rights, CSE, contraceptives and pregnancy.

• The Mongolian Family Welfare Association is operating a 24-hr hotline to provide information, referrals and counselling on SRHR issues. They are also co-ordinating social work services for teenage mothers.

• The Penang Family Health Development Association (Malaysia) ran two youth dialogues on SRR and is running a mobile phone video clip competition.

• The South Asian Regional Youth Network (SARYN) completed their project, which involved a 3-day capacity building workshop in New Delhi for young people on ‘Positive Approaches to implementing Young People’s Sexuality and Rights’. The workshop was very successful and served as an excellent training and networking opportunity. Several participants have integrated their newly acquired skills and knowledge into advocacy and training initiatives with their respective organisations.

• The Waray-Waray Youth Advocates (Philippines) are implementing a very well-organised project to create and support peer counsellor’s groups for girls and young women. The project has been approved in two high-schools and two districts

• Youth Sexual Awareness for Europe (YSAFE) has uploaded a lot of excellent content on their I [heart] being a girl blog, including some excellent ‘empowerment recipes’ and great book recommendations. http://iheartbeingagirl.blogspot.com/

We want to show that our work on young women's and girls' pregnancy respects the sexual rights of young people, and to demonstrate that IPPF is here to help and support young women and girls in their decisions related to sexuality, whatever their choices may be.

The grant will cover activities over a period of one to 6 months, starting in May 2010.

Other Girls Decide projects

Projects are being implemented with support from the Girls Decide Fund in:

• Syria
• Georgia
• the Solomon Islands
• Mongolia
• Sri Lanka 
• Colombia

Smaller scale projects are also being implemented in:

• Tunisia
• Romania
• ESEAOR
• Bangladesh 
• Nepal

from regional Girls Decide support. The HIV and abortion teams at Central Office (London) are producing resources on young women’s experiences with abortion and young women living with HIV.