John Ekongo
3 October 2008
Windhoek — The Namibia Planned Parenthood Association (NAPPA) and National Youth Council of Namibia (NYC) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at strengthening comprehensive sexuality education (CSE).
The project to be known as the Alliance of Parent, Adolescents and Community Initiative (APADOC) aims to promote the involvement of parents, communities and adolescents in adolescent health matters.
It will foster and empower parents, communities and adolescents towards health actions, with the overall aim to help facilitate the development of an integrated response to sexual and reproductive health problems for adolescents.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, NAPPA Country Director Sam Ntelamo said both NAPPA and the NYC, as concerned organizations representing large youth constituencies, feel strongly that universal access to comprehensive sexuality education is an essential element in the development of a strategy to promote sexual health.
"It is not possible to achieve the country's health goals without improving and expanding networks between all sexual and reproduction health (SRH) service providers, players, collaborators and sympathizers," Ntelamo said at the event.
Ntelamo said as part of the objective to strengthen relationships and to improve the quality of sexual and reproductive health care, NAPPA has secured funding from the Danish government to support the CSE project in Namibia.
For this intervention to be successful, he said, it requires the involvement of all stakeholders, including parents and youth.
He informed the gathering that the number of teen parents has increased over the years, saying it is now time to act.
"Henceforth, this initiative will work with teen parents, teachers and adolescents to ensure the successful implementation of the CSE project," he said.
The project has set its specific objectives as that of creating a sustainable advocacy network that would promote comprehensive sexuality education between key partners.
It will identify key sexual and reproductive health problems affecting young adults and develop strategies and interventions to address them.
Ntelamo added that they would work with key stakeholders and actors to adopt a broad sexuality education and develop their skills to ensure effective application of the skills.
Implementation sites include the regions of Caprivi, Erongo, Hardap, Ohangwena, Oshana and Kavango.
The project is funded wholly by the Danish Government through its Foreign Affairs Ministry to the tune of N$700 000.
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