CANKUZO / MWARO / RUTANA / KARUSI September 29th (ABP) – As part of the Menyumenyeshe program carried out among young people in Cankuzo province, the NGO Cordaid Burundi, one of the implementers of that program in collaboration with the ministry for Youth Affairs, proceeded on Thursday, September 24, 2020 to a competition session on sexual and reproductive health for the young people of the Cankuzo youth center, a session which ended with the distribution of sports equipment to them.
On the same occasion, the senior adviser to the governor, Mr. Pierre Claver Nakumuryango, who had taken part in that activity commended the work accomplished by the NGO Cordaid among the young people of that province, which is noticed by the number of unwanted pregnancies which tended to decrease in adolescents. In this sense, Mr. Nakumuryango called on young people to love the cultural and intellectual activities provided in the youth centers to do battle with other bad behavior causing school dropouts, unwanted pregnancies and incurable diseases.
The representative of the NGO Cordaid, Mr. Eric Niyokwizera, launched a message relating to the good use of equipment consisting of balls, jerseys, dance uniforms and other materials distributed at the Cankuzo youth center. He was also delighted with the results of the Menyumenyeshe program.
In Mwaro, the NGO Cordaid continues its activities to educate young people and adolescents on reproductive health, it was on Friday in Kayokwe where competition games were organized and prizes were awarded to the winners.
Through those competitions, young people and adolescents were made aware of behavior change in matters of reproductive health, family planning, the harmful effects of unwanted pregnancies among young people and adolescents, and their consequences.
Those who have already benefited from the training of the Menyumenyeshe program have given testimonies on the achievements. Cordaid subsequently provided assistance to the Kayokwe youth center with office equipment: a shelf, 30 chairs, 4 benches, soccer balls, sports jerseys, outfits for animation groups and others.
The winners of the competitions received notebooks, pens and laundry soaps. The senior adviser to the governor of Mwaro, Mr. Léonce Kwizera, who closed the day’s activities, thanked the NGO Cordaid for its achievements in its Menyumenyeshe program for the youth, for their harmonious development. He invited young people and adolescents to come together in development associations and avoid delinquency.
In Rutana, as part of the revitalization of youth centers to make them more attractive, the Menyumenyeshe program executed in consortium with Cordaid, Care International, UNFPA and Rutgers, offered the Rutana youth center (south-east) a batch of material made up of plastic chairs, benches, loincloths to serve as uniforms for the dancers…, a check in Rutana by ABP has revealed.
That material was handed over after an awareness and testimony session for two young people on behavior change and the acquired capacities to support themselves economically.
Competitions were organized around themes related to sexual and reproductive health among adolescents and young people. Each correct answer was crowned with the awarding of prizes consisting of notebooks, soaps and ballpoint pens.
At the opening of the meeting, the owner of the youth-friendly health center of Rutana was delighted by the fact that today, young people, both in school and not, who use the services of this center to inquire about the various problems they face, are becoming more and more numerous in order to have more information on sexual and reproductive health.
The Menyumenyeshe program aims to promote access to correct and comprehensive information and quality reproductive health services adapted to young people through capacity building of young peer educators, teachers, parents, care providers, CDS friends of young people and socio-community networks.
In Karusi, with the aim of increasing, among adolescents and young people who attend youth centers, the promotion of responsible behavior, knowledge about the prevention of unwanted pregnancies and HIV / AIDS as well as major problems affecting their sexual and reproductive health, Cordaid, through its “Menyumenyeshe” program, organized competitions and offered material equipment to the Gitaramuka youth center on Friday September 25, 2020.
Twenty-five pieces of plastic chairs, three balls, one football, one basketball, and one volleyball, eighteen pairs of play jerseys, nine pairs of girls’ dance outfits, twenty copies of skill manuals of everyday life, two binders and a punch, such is the kit given by Cordaid to the youth center of Gitaramuka, a center for young people considered more dynamic by the organization.
Two hundred and forty notebooks of one hundred sheets each, two hundred and forty pens and one hundred and twenty laundry soaps were reserved for the winners during the competition through questions relating to reproductive health.
After the testimonies of the young beneficiaries of Cordaid’s supervision in the “Menyumenyeshe” program, on sexual and reproductive health and supervision in savings and loans groups, the governor’s senior advisor, Mr. Innocent Ntirampeba, acknowledged through his speech the role of awareness made by that NGO.