Vientiane Youth Centre for Health and Development

The Vientiane Youth Centre is the first of its kind in the Lao PDR, offering a dedicated space for young people to learn about sexual and reproductive health issues. The Centre has become an important model in the provision of peer education and has become well known for developing young active leaders who can raise awareness of young people’s needs through music, radio, dance and special advocacy events. The Centre has also successfully improved the environment for A/YSRH issues in the capital city by working with community and political leaders and by developing linkages with other organisations both government run and NGOs.

Strategy: The strategy of the Youth Centre evolved over the RHIYA period. Key focuses were on developing a high quality peer education programme led by Youth Workers, providing a space for young people, and involving and empowering them. In 2003 and 2004 many outreach activities were conducted in schools to address low levels of awareness and knowledge of A/YSRH among young people and the communities. RH and Life skills courses were offered at the centre regularly. By 2005 the centre began to target more vulnerable groups in the same district including drug users and other out-of-school youth. Peer education training was reviewed and reorganised. The results have been a higher quality of training and peer educators who have the skills and motivation to take on more responsibility including advocacy work with local village leaders. This allowed Youth Workers to focus on planning, monitoring and following up activities. Over the period peer educators became more involved in planning and the centre experimented with a range of innovative approaches to appeal to youth including DJ and Karaoke competitions and monthly concerts.

The Centre also developed links with other organisations such as the drug re habilitation centre, PLWHA groups, other service providers including hospitals and the Centre for HIV/AIDS and STIs (CHAS). The Youth Centre was also the instigator of the innovative Referral and Counselling Network (RCN) which brought together service providers in Vientiane to improve referral and client oriented SRH services including counselling. They centre organised events such as World AIDS day celebrations, drawing crowds of over 1,000 and high level political support.

Outputs: 1) Increased political and community support for A/YSRH interventions: The Youth Centre highlighted the need for programmes addressing young people’s sexual and reproductive health. Through community outreach activities, over 400 officials, school directors and village leaders in Vientiane were provided with information on A/YSRH. The Youth Centre joined with UNFPA to celebrate World Population Day, the Centre providing the ‘voice’ of young people and showcasing dramas, songs and dances. During these events over 6,000 people received information on a wide range of issues including gender, unsafe abortion, STI’s and contraception. In addition, the centre s hared their programme experience with many organisations through s hared workshops and meetings, inspiring other organisations to undertake similar work.

2) Increased awareness and improved SRH knowledge and be haviour among youth and adolescents: Over 5,000 young people accessed information on A/YSRH during the period through training courses, events and peer education. IEC materials developed by UPSU were distributed and the Peer Educator’s Toolkit provided information and activities on 13 different SRH topics. Endline results showed t hat knowledge of young people in C hant habourly district, about the fertile period and contraceptive methods increased by about 20%. The number of young people who had heard of STIs reached 84%, those who knew two ways of pr eventing STIs went up from 24 to 41%. Although 99% of young people had already heard of HIV at the baseline, the percentage who had no misconceptions about HIV increased from 37% to 51% indicating t hat young people were gaining a deeper knowledge of this issue. Contraception use at last sex also increased from 55% to 70% showing t hat young people in Vientiane are adopting safer sexual be haviour.

3) Improved access to quality youth oriented sexual and reproductive health services: The Youth Centre Clinic developed Youth Friendly Service (YFS) Protocols and staff were trained in YFS and basic and advanced counselling courses. The number of young people who have used the clinic increased threefold between 2003 and 2005. However, there is still need to improve utilisation rates. Two client exit surveys were conducted during the RHIYA; both showed consistently high levels of satisfaction with the services received. The Youth Centre played a key role in setting up the RCN which offered referral and counselling services at 11 other government run service delivery points (SDP) in the capital.

4) En hanced technical planning and managerial capacity among government partners to provide appropriate, adolescent-friendly A/YSRH information and services: The technical capacity of the Youth Centre management and staff was en hanced by a number of trainings organized by UPSU, government and non-government organizations both in the country and overseas. Training was provided in project management as part of the capacity building for all RHIYA partners, and included report writing, knowledge management (KMS) and M&E. The Youth Centre staff were also trained on basic and advanced counselling, Youth Friendly Services. Linkages with UPSU and UNFPA led to a number of trainings abroad in Malaysia, T hailand and Sri Lanka on advocacy, HIV/AIDS, drug use and counselling. Clinic staff at the Youth centre also received training on STI treatment, HIV/AIDS pr evention, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS infected people, basic pr evention and counselling for drug users, and VCT.

 UPSU provided extensive input into management of the Youth Centre including project planning, identifying training needs, data collection and report writing. Towards the end of the project, UPSU also provided ongoing support in strategic planning and developing proposals for future funding.

Lessons Learned: Edu-tainment is an effective way of drawing in young people. It keeps them away from high-risk activities and can develop skills in music, design and drama. It is important to get a good balance between the two components, education and entertainment, to ensure the target audience get the information they need.

Communication skills are essential for Peer educators. Peer educators need to know how to explain, clarify, summarize, listen and encourage people to discuss personal and sensitive issues. As a PE programme develops and young volunteers take on a great role and responsibility, it is important to equip them with a range of skills including basic counselling and advocacy.

Trial periods and deferred incentives can improve PE retention rates . Peer educators from high-risk groups such as drug users have high drop-out rates from courses. Having a 3-month trial period after the course, which features a 2 day youth camp at the end of t hat time can motivate young people to stay involved.

Communities need to be involved in planning and decision-making about activities with trained peer educators from t hat community . Where peer educators are taking on a stronger outreach role in their own communities, it is important for them to work with community members and youth workers from the centre to plan small scale local events. This ensures ownership and support.

Partner Profile: Originally founded in 1955 as the Lao Women's Association, the Lao Women's Union is a mass organisation which seeks to en hance women's capacity for self-development and promote women's role in society. The Union takes a lead in promoting gender equality and protecting the interests of women and children from different ethnic backgrounds. The Women’s Union is responsible for the implementation of the Gender Resources Information and Development Centre (GRID) project which disseminates information on gender and development in the Lao PDR; incorporates gender into the planning processes; strengthens women’s participation and decision making; and build skills in gender mainstreaming for government officials. The Lao Women's Union at Vientiane Capital level is currently working with UNICEF to offer support services for victims of gender-based violence.

Contact: Address: Vientiane Youth Centre, Sihom Village Chant habuly District;
Tel + (856 )21 243347, 252886; Fax : + ( 856 )21 243347
Case studies from RHIYA: Good Practices in Clinical Services and Comprehensive Programmes 2006