Adolescents out of school from Nyakiyumbu Sub County empowered to mitigate violence against children and adolescents and to be resilient to violence.

10 safe spaces of adolescents out of school aged 13-24 have been formed in Nyakiyumbu sub county and they are holding weekly sharing sessions and discussions in their safe spaces through which they are learning and building their resilience to mitigate factors that expose them to Violence. The sharing sessions and discussions are conducted by the peer mentors using the peer educator’s youth training manual and the life skills manual. The adolescents have highly embraced the weekly sessions and the good attendance has been linked to the different games and sports activities which have always been integrated in the sessions that attracts many adolescents to attend the club activities. Through these sharing sessions and discussions, adolescents have been able to identify hot spots in their respective areas, identify challenges and make agreed actions. The discussions are also enabling adolescents to develop life skills to protect themselves in potentially risky situations and contributing to the empowerment of adolescents on their peer educators’ development path. The sessions are helping adolescents to feel useful, gain knowledge and skills that are important for life, develop self-esteem and positive self-image as well as changing their beliefs and practices towards protecting children from being violated.

The Mentors observed that, with the efforts and intervention of Good Hope foundation for Rural Development with funding from CRVP-F, the introduction of safe spaces is helping the youth and adolescents. It is through interactions in the identified safe spaces that youth and adolescents are learning how to build hope and confidence and most students learning how to resist violence. “We are now having skills and learning how to value ourselves.”

Young mothers are also having confidence in themselves and also with skills of how to care for their children and also have learnt how to use the available resources e.g Making small scale business to help themselves and their children.

Good Hope Foundation for Rural Development has trained mentors in Nyakiyumbu Sub County and these mentors are intended to reach their fellow youth in communities to utilize the Safe spaces as they struggle to prevent violence against themselves as youth and adolescents.