Provision of Youth Friendly Health Services in Phalombe is said to have improved with the number of health workers equipped with knowledge on the services increasing by 20 percent over the past six months.
This was revealed on Saturday during a Youth Friendly Services orientation session for health workers in rural areas of the district held by the Centre for Human Rights and Institute for Social Change Initiative (CHINANSI) Foundation.
According to Youth Friendly Services Coordinator for Phalombe, Chimwemwe Kalolo, over the past years youths in the district had been struggling to access services pertaining to reproductive health, counselling and Sexually Transmitted Infections treatment due to insufficiency of health workers with knowledge on how to provide such services in a youth friendly manner.
Said Kalolo: “By 2015 we had only 70 health workers that were trained to provide youth friendly health services across the 15 health facilities in the district, but currently it is amusing to note that there are at least 106 knowledgeable youth friendly health services providers that were trained by CHINANSI in order to complement our efforts.”
Gladwell Mbela, a Medical Assistant at Nambazo Health Centre in the district emphasized on the importance of providing youths with an opportunity to access health services in a friendly and confidential manner, saying without such services many youths die in silence.
Youth Friendly Health Service is a government initiative aimed at allowing youths to access controversial services such as Sexually Transmitted Infections treatment and contraceptives, from public health services without being condemned or monitored by the community.
