Primary prevention programs need to make special efforts to gain access to these young people and to understand and respond to their particular needs. This can often be achieved through mobilizing volunteers and street educators, as UNAIDS, the UN International Drug Program, and Street Kids International have done when working with street children in Asia.”
-- Kofi A. Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations
street health.
For street kids, decisions about whether to use drugs or engage in risky sexual practices are made in environments where obvious answers and simple choices do not exist. Street kids must cope as their actions and decisions hold potential risks.
Through our street health program we engage street kids in making informed choices about sexual health, HIV/AIDS and drug use. Working with local youth workers, our key training tools include the award-winning Karate Kids and Goldtooth animations that tell the stories of street kids confronting health and safety issues.
In 2008, we worked with Kenyan health organization AfriAfya to develop a new tool that educates adolescent girls about HIV/AIDS. More than100 girls in the Nyanza Province of Kenya took part in a story-writing contest, about youth facing decisions with consequences to their sexual health. These stories were later compiled into a book to be distributed to Kenyan youth.
By collecting and sharing such stories, we have expanded on our street health program, and provided youth a resource with stories they can relate to.
Download Our Turn To Tell, the booklet of stories by and for Kenyan girls.
