On Wednesday, October 12, adolescent girls and young women turned up to grace the first-ever community level training workshop for  adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) as peer educators to support other AGYW and amplify advocacy on the Sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) needs for AGYW especially those living with HIV. Organized in partnership with Y+ Global, the 3 days training was held from 12^th-14^th October 2022 at BaNgaAfayo Initiative Uganda’s Community Center, in a remote village of Nakaziba, in Kayunga District of Uganda under the theme “Giving AGYW a Voice.”

Her Voice Fund aims to support the meaningful engagement of adolescent girls and young women in relevant national, provincial and district level processes in order to contribute more directly to the decisions that affect their lives.

BaNgaAfayo Initiative Uganda as an implementing partner under Her Voice Fund, is implementing a project that aims to empower Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW), especially those living with HIV in Kayunga District with the correct knowledge, attitude, and skills for reducing HIV infections, gender-based violence (GBV) and improving their SRHR outcomes. BaNgaAfayo challenges negative social norms and practices that affect SRHR outcomes amongst Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) by providing them with leadership skills to instigate them to demand their local and national Government for accountability especially by proactively involving them in planning for their health needs and making sure that SRHR issues are prioritized in the district health budget.

The 3 days training focused on building a generation of young people especially those living with HIV and building their capacities, and ensuring their participation in advocacy for policies and services that directly affect their lives at a grassroots level. This is because we believe that young people play a crucial role in advocating for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights, as only they are able to voice their realities and the numerous SRHR challenges they face.

Amongst the 36 identified participants, 15 were HIV positive, 5 were young mothers and the 16 were HIV negative.  During the training, participants were taken through different sessions which included topics like; Life skills, Planning and development, HIV/AIDs, Gender based violence, Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (ASRHR), Youth friendly services, Evidence based Advocacy, among others.

By the end of the training;

• Participants developed an action plan regarding advocacy activities they would carry out as peer educators in the communities.
• Participants were able to learn and understand key SRHR concepts and issues in the community. This was well demonstrated at the end of the training when peer educators were asked what they had learnt, they were able to recall the knowledge the training was intended to impart.
• AGYW created advocacy strategies to improve adolescent girls’ health and wellbeing.
• Adolescent girls and Young women were empowered with the skills and information they needed to become agents of change for HIV prevention, youth friendly services and uptake in their communities.