I grew up in a small city called Guwahati, tucked in the far northeast of India. My region is full of abundant resources but also had its own share of issues, like insurgency and violence, that I witnessed from a very young age. I think this is what led me to choose a career in the development space.
One of the questions that kept coming up was, “Given our current fertility rate and the traditional belief in children as a blessing, how are we going to manage our population structure?” The answer lies in investing in family planning methods that are available for people to choose of their free will and free from coercion.
Aren’t processes that affect millions of young people supposed to provide an environment that is conducive towards meaningful youth engagement and inclusion, especially in a year when the focus is on the youth? Aren’t processes supposed to be clear enough for a young man or woman on this continent to understand?
With our recommended intervention, we the Kenyan youth will feel, and say, that the Innovative Youth Intervention Center, is ours, ni yetu!
We demand this narrative to change, and young people, if given the chance, are the best ones to bring about this change. The Africa we want is a healthy, educated, productive, and youthful continent.
Though my journey has just begun, I hope part one of my life’s story inspires many others, especially girls and young women, to join me on this journey. Do not ever feel greatness does not come from slums.
The elixir of a healthy city
with leafy green lungs.
A peaceful home,
where all fears are gone.
As a girl growing up in a rural community, I never had resources or power to help out my peers. This meant I witnessed a lot of suffering. All the same, I realized eventually that my voice is a very powerful tool that I can use to help girls my community, and that drove me to action.
There were days I walked miles to and from high school, which was miles away in the neighboring community. There were days when I sold coconuts in the village and snacks on the school bus in order to make money for school fees. Despite this hardship, I was determined to complete high school.
Being a volunteer was something rather new for our generation, and so were civic education, youth rights and the concept of participation. For that reason most of our parents had little knowledge and understanding of why this was important to me and my peers, as participation had political and negative connotations and sex and sexuality were generally a taboo.
We talk about how we’ve grown up in these movements, what inspires us about these movements, what we’ve learned from the dynamics and people these movements are comprised of, and how these movements have changed (and have changed us).
I made friends and enemies alike but the message was clear. I was a force to reckon with, a girl who had grown into a young woman in a not so supportive society who wanted the world to be different for other girls.
It seemed like the inequalities for girls were abundant no matter where I looked. I started to realize that something was wrong, that there was a power trying to keep me down and that didn’t want me to be confident and strong.
These initiatives are empowering because these young people are able to openly talk about sex through comprehensive sexuality education modules and make choices about their bodies. The programs are also reassuring for a brighter future in the women's rights movement because girls can openly discuss and suggest solutions to their own problems.
Sharing from my experience I would like to say that young women should be able to challenge the society, social norms, and the status quo. Challenge the structures. Challenge people who challenge you! Keep doing what you do and one day people will see what you mean and realize the impact you are making. We can’t make everyone happy, nor should we be required to try.
I believe that every woman is powerful, and just needs to explore her inner strengths. This is a story of an ordinary woman who opened her eyes in the very normal middle class family, where no women was allowed to seek/find and or explore her abilities to challenge the family norms and traditions against women.
I also wish I’d known that I’m the most important person for me. Learning now to be OK, really OK with who I am, to do anything. That it’s always possible for me to be afraid, because fear is part of been a human being, so that I have to learn to see that thing (or thought) that scares me and find the way to be boosted by this fear instead of being paralyzed by it.
Originally posted on Youthcoalition.org - After the strong results of the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, launched in 2010 by the UN Secretary General, and the push from different organizations and agencies to increase attention on adolescent health, it is great to welcome a new Global Strategy that includes adolescents and incorporates the priorities of young people.
Originally posted on Feministing.com - The sound of rolling suitcases rumbled from Dublin’s main thoroughfare to the Parliament as abortion rights activists took to the streets in Ireland’s third annual March for Choice on Saturday.
Originally posted on resurj.org - India’s policies towards ensuring the rights of People Living with Disabilities has long been challenged in country by civil society groups and activists, despite it being one of the first countries to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability.
