DEAF Zimbabwe Trust (DZT) in conjunction with Mashambanzou Care Trust and Disability HIV and AIDS trust (DHAT), have embarked on a Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) training for youths living with disabilities.
By Michael Gwarisa
The program also targets non-disabled youths and aims among other things to equip young people with the necessary information regarding sexual reproductive health. Deaf Zimbabwe programs officer, Veronica Mwanza said the program commenced in 2017 and spilled over into 2018 and 2019 respectively.
The first phase of the program was in 2017 to 2018 and the second is in 2019. Places covered include Nyabira, ,Mabvuku, Caledonia, and Danhiko.
“The SRHR program is divided into segments which include training in school and out of school young people, both trained as champions. The idea behind training the champions is that young people tend to listen to their peers more,” said Mwanza.
She also said young person with disabilities have been lagging behind in terms of accessing SRHR knowledge and through these trainings, they will be capacitated to also train their peers.
“Teenagers were equipped with information on how to handle challenges that arise from adolescence and were also educated on the importance of inclusivity of persons with disabilities on developmental platforms.”
The youth further gave personal experiences on the challenges they faced during adolescence adding that there are not enough platforms for them to express themselves and were proffered with life skills in order to curb sexual related challenges.
Disabled teenagers also highlighted that families needed to play a huge supportive role in order to remove barriers that impede their development.
