Volunteer Dedication & Passion: The tale of PPAZ at Zambia’s first ever Civil Society Organization Fair
It’s a cold windy morning at Zambia’s largest shopping mall and the entire venue is a hive of activity. A large tent sits in the middle of the car park, a truck loaded high with sound equipment attempts to reverse into a tight parking space whilst ambulances and large 4×4’s branded with the logos of various NGO’s and Aid Funders arrive at the mall’s parking lot in droves. Right in the midst of all this confusion are 4 young people dressed in branded Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ) T-shirts. Whilst setting up a small tent, they distribute brochures with information on family planning, contraceptives and STI’s. With all the frantic activity taking place around them, This small band of young people looks completely out of place at this event.
The event in question is Zambia’s first ever Civil Society Organization (CSO) Fair. Where CSO’s from different sectors exhibits their programs and services. The event is organized by the NGO LatKings and has Zambia’s Minister of Health as well as the Lusaka Mayor in attendance.
The Makeni Mall is known as place where young people go to meet their friends and hangout on a Saturday. It is where the young people go to be seen and act cool. These young people are usually dressed in the latest fashion and have loud conversations about popular music, movies, celebrities or the best-looking girls or boys at their school. The last thing you would expect here is to see young people distribute condoms or let alone overhear them talking about breast cancer screening. But that is exactly what the PPAZ t-shirt wearing young people are doing. They speak with confidence and are well versed on issues such as family planning, contraceptives and early child marriages. To get to a point where these young volunteers are knowledgeable on numerous SRHR issues, a lot of time and resources has been invested in them by PPAZ.
PPAZ is committed to ensuring young people receive information and utilise SRHR services. Twice every week on Wednesdays and Saturday’s young people meet at the Association’s Lusaka clinic to learn about life skills, human rights, and sexual and reproductive health. Organized in different age groups to access appropriate information relevant to each age group, they use participatory methods to ensure learner centred approaches. These include the use of drama, debates, quiz, question and answer sessions, group discussions, games and one-to-one discussions. Trained facilitators who are themselves young people age 15 to 24 years old, use different manuals including the Comprehensive Sexuality Education curriculum and the Life Skills manual for in and out of school youth to bring about topics relevant to the groups they are meeting on the particular day. To ensure that young people are not only acquiring information and knowledge about their reproductive health, those young people that wish to access SRH and HIV services are referred to the clinic for professional medical care.
These interventions have produced a cadre of young PPAZ volunteers that are knowledgeable, resilient, dedicated and passionate about transforming the SRHR landscape in Zambia.