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MAMTA-RFSU Twinning partners
MAMTA
initiated its work on maternal and child health in urban slums and
among rural poor more than a decade ago. During the course of
the
work
'young people'
were identified
as a resource with tremendous zeal to learn
and willingness to change.
Young people's
need for
information and services on Sexual and reproductive health was understood,
a need
which otherwise
remained undressed and unrecognized. This
led to the beginning of
pioneering efforts in
this area. The possibility of a twining with
Swedish Association
for Sexuality Education (RFSU), an organisation having over 70 years
of experience in Young People’s Sexual and Reproductive Health (YRSHR)
issues was explored and this became possible in later part of 1999
with the support of Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).
MAMTA and RFSU met in October 1999 to look into areas of collaboration
and twinning. Key working areas were identified with the premise that:
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Accurate and scientific information will enable young people to be
responsible in exercising their sexual and reproductive health
rights.
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Related developmental issues like access to education and school
retention, prevention of early marriage, gender equity and other
such issues that impact Young people and their Sexual and
Reproductive Health needs attention.
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There is a yawning gap between the needs of ‘young people’ and the
services provided to them. Services - be it health or education,
should be suited to their age and situation.
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Government’s commitment to young people’s rights should be reflected
in legal and policy reforms, which not only affect behaviour, but
also can
shape people’s understanding of equity and justice.
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Adoption of laws and policies should be accompanied by vigorous
efforts to enforce and implement these measures.
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A
joint proposal ‘Evolving strategies for Optimum Health and
Development of Young People’ was submitted to SIDA by the two
partners
which got approval to work for 3 years (Phase 1). Year 2000
marked the beginning of long-term partnership between MAMTA and SIDA. The proposal looked at developing and testing strategies
to work on the sensitive issue of YRSHR with a gender and rights
perspective. RFSU with its decades of experience of working on
sexuality and expertise in training has played an important role in
building capacities of MAMTA and the twinning resulted in developing
culturally and socially relevant strategies to work on these
sensitive issues.
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MAMTA and RFSU
jointly conducted the first Advanced International Training
programme on YSRHR for 10 South Asian countries in September 2003 at
New Delhi.
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The second Advanced International Training Program is due to be held
in September 2004.
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