Young people in Kisumu County face a myriad of challenges such as the increasing cases of new HIV/AIDS cases among the youth; teen pregnancies in informal settlements, early sexual debut among adolescents as well as the rising cases of SGBV among youth. The aforementioned challenges have been attributed to the lack of access to youth-friendly services, access to contraceptives, comprehensive sexuality education, parental guidance, lack of access to accurate SRHR information and safe spaces.
As such, the Y-ACT Kisumu Chapter’s advocacy issue is the development and implementation of an adolescent and youth SRHR policy within the county. These issues when addressed, could see greater productivity; reduced poverty; higher educational attainment; reduced burden on the healthcare systems such as maternity wards within Kisumu county. Therefore, the Kisumu chapter endeavors to build meaningful and strategic partnerships with the county department of health and young people to implement a Kisumu county adolescent and youth SRH policy by July 2021.