By Mohamed K. Turay
The Executive Director of Health Alert, Victor Lansana Koroma, has urged over 300 young people, drawn from the 16 Districts of Sierra Leone including the Western Area, to take the front seat in shaping their future.
He urged them during a two-day National Youth and Adolescent Family Planning Conference held at the Bintumani International Conference Centre in Freetown last week.
With the theme: “Young People Breaking Cycles and Bulling Future”, Victor Lansana Koroma said before now, when family planning issues were discussed, young people were not on the table. He noted that with the conference initiated years back, his organisation and partners were able to train youths on project tracking, issues surrounding family planning and so on as a result of this conference.
He concluded that through this conference and its partners, young folks were taught on public speaking and as well as budget tracking.
Officially opening the conference the Deputy Minister of Health I, Dr Charles Senessie, said for the past years the conference had become an essential platform for empowering young people and driving change. He said the conference had provided the Government of Sierra Leone with critical recommendations that had shaped national policies and programmes focused on youth and adolescent health.
The outcomes of previous conferences, Dr Charles Senessie stressed, had been instrumental in informing policies such as the National Strategy for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy, the Family Planning Cost Implementation Plan, and the FP2030 Commitments.
He stated that the 2022 conference, in particular, provided young people with the platform to ensure their voices were heard and their needs fully articulated in the FP2030 document, which he noted he was honoured to launch during the SRH Conference in December 2023.
He also stated that the Health Ministry was working to ensure that “this approach guides all our efforts to address the unique needs of our young people”. He observed that, “as a government, we are deeply committed to placing youth at the centre of our development strategies”.
He concluded by stating that in July 2024, he had the privilege of launching the Family Planning Keke Initiative, which emerged as the winner of the 2022 edition of this conference, with support from USAID Momentum. This initiative, he noted further, was now being implemented by young people in Kenema District with the backing of the District Health Management Team.
The conference was supported by USAID Momentum, UNFPA, WHO, MSI, CARE, and the Ministry of Health.