Reaching Out-of-School Youth with Reproductive Health and HIV Information and Services

From the Introduction
Worldwide, some 120 million school-aged children are out of school, and slightly more than half of these are girls, according to UNICEF. Fortunately, some of theseyoung people receive health information through innovative programs. One program brings education to rural youth in conjunction with agricultural training. Another uses radio to teach youth about HIV and reproductive health. Still another integrates health information with clinical services for high-risk youth. But most youth are not so fortunate in benefiting from these pilot projects.

This Youth Issues Paper examines a topic that is not well represented in the published literature but is clearly relevant to the well-being of young people. The first chapter distinguishes between "mainstream" and "socially marginalized" out-of-school youth, providing a conceptual view for this varied population. The second chapter examines the link between schooling and safer sexual behavior, underscoring the fact that school benefits children beyond literacy and knowledge. The third chapter presents programs that work with out-of-school youth using a framework that identifies key goals and possible actions that programs can take. Following are four case studies, showing how different projects have worked with both mainstream and marginalized out-of-school youth. The last chapter summarizes the key points of the paper."

YouthNet is a 5-year programme funded by USAID that aims to improve reproductive health and prevent HIV among young people. This material is "Youth Issues Paper 4" in the series.

Click here to access the resource on the YouthNet page (FHI website). Click here to download the report in PDF format. To request a printed copy, please see below.

Contact: Family Health International
youthnetpubs@fhi.org
YouthNet page on the FHI website