My Body My Future – Voices of Change
Voices of Change is the story of My Body My Future, the sexual and reproductive health and rights programme dismantling the challenges holding girls back.
Told through the experiences and learnings of the young people, staff, partners and impact data behind the work.
Across the world, too many girls are denied the freedom or the information to make choices about their own bodies and futures. Despite decades of global commitments, progress towards gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) remains slow, uneven and under threat.
The My Body My Future programme set out to change that – tackling the complex and deeply rooted social, cultural, financial and political barriers that hold back SRHR for girls and young people.
Now, girls, adolescents and young people in all their diversity are making their own informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health, staying safe and challenging harmful norms.
How My Body My Future worked
My Body My Future worked with girls, adolescents and young people, parents, caregivers, community members and partners in Ethiopia, Laos, Mozambique, Myanmar, Uganda and Zimbabwe to challenge the barriers that restrict girls access to the services and information they need.
The programme:
- Taught girls, children and young people about their sexual and reproductive health and rights.
- Made SRHR services ready and resilient so they are able to function during climate related emergencies.
- Ensured that all services provided are easy to access and welcoming to all.
- Used mobile clinics and community visits so SRHR health services are accessible to those in hard to reach communities.
- Ran community courses that teach parents approaches and tools to make discussing sensitive topics at home easier.
- Equipped girls with the knowledge and tools to challenge harmful beliefs and stigma.
- Had an inclusive and sex-positive approach.
- Helped identify stigma and negative deep-rooted community beliefs. This means that training and awareness sessions met the direct needs of the communities taking part.
- Provided adolescents and youth with knowledge on SRHR and climate change and supported climate resilience of families and communities.
Project highlights
- My Body My Future has influenced 1 million people across 6 countries.
- 270,000 people took part in My Body My Future training and skills building, dialogue sessions, and engaged with or accessed its services.
- Those who took part positively influenced their peers, families and communities, reaching indirectly a total of 732,000 people.
- 92% of young people now feel able to talk to a partner about their feelings and preferences regarding sex. This has increased from 55% at the start of the programme.
- Over 125,000 children, adolescents and youth were provided with sexual and reproductive health services through community visits and mobile clinics.
- Modern contraception use among 15 to 19-year-old adolescent girls increased from 21% to 32% in 5 programme countries.
These strong results make My Body My Future a global example of how to support adolescents in shaping their futures.
Funded by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the programme was implemented by Plan International Finland and Country Offices in Ethiopia, Laos, Mozambique, Myanmar, Uganda and Zimbabwe, and local partners. The project ran in 2 phases, the first phase from 2018 to 2021, and the second phase from 2022 to 2025.
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Categories: Emergencies, Sexual and reproductive health and rights
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