Learning from the Past: Peer Educators Look to the Future in Ethiopia

Jessica Mack & Joyce Kinaro, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia- August 2009

"I won't end up like that," says Zahara, an 18-year old student in Awassa, Ethiopia.  She's just finished telling the story of a girl in her community who became pregnant a few years ago, when she was just 16.  Unable to confide in her parents, and deeply shamed that her friends, neighbors, and entire community would know she was having sex as a young person, she sought an unsafe abortion and died later of complications.

Dagim, 24, is a peer educator and helps run weekly game nights and other activities to engage youth in the community.

Though a recent study undertaken by a local community health organization showed that the average age for a young person in the community here to begin having sex is around the age of 15, this fact is largely ignored by parents, teachers, and service providers.  As a result, there are very few health care providers who give young people contraceptives and accurate sexual health information in a judgment-free environment.

Luckily there's a courageous network of trained youth peer educators, supported by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and implemented by its partner organizations, Forum on Street Children Ethiopia (FSCE) and Mary Joy Aid Through Development, who are filling in this critical gap.

Zahara's classmate, Martha, is one of these youth peer educators, and it's through her that Zahara learned about using contraceptive pills.  Six months ago she became Martha's 36^th client, whom Martha meets with monthly to supply a fresh pack of pills and counsel on sexual and reproductive health issues that may have come up.  In this part of Ethiopia, having peer educators distribute contraceptives is often the most effective way to reach young people. Martha's peers utilize and appreciate her services, although there's still a lot of work to be done around the acceptance of young people using contraceptives.  In fact, Martha says most of her pill and condom clients prefer to meet her at night or in isolated places where they won't risk someone seeing them.

Little by little, though, the attitudes are changing, Zahara and Martha say.  The peer educators themselves are starting conversations with their own parents, and are proving the benefit of their work to the overall well-being of their communities.  They hold events and activities to increase community awareness of reproductive health issues.  And as a backstop to the important work peer educators are doing in the community, both Mary Joy and FSCE offer "youth-friendly" clinical services where a nurse specially trained in the needs and concerns of young people sees young clients, after school and even on Saturdays.

A group of young people look on during an "edutainment" session run by peer educators: karaoke and a Q & A session on safe sex.

The driving force for Zahara to begin taking contraceptives is an ambition to complete her education.  She's seen too many female classmates drop out of school after becoming pregnant unintentionally.  She's in a steady relationship with a boy she likes and plans to marry.  They're having sex, though, and they both want to make sure they don't have children until they're ready.  Just being able to make that decision to control her own fertility and make her own sexual choices has given Zahara a new level of empowerment.  She hopes to be trained as a peer educator herself next year, and join Martha in her work to help other young people in her community.