Open AccessSouth Africa: Who uses youth centers and why?
Author(s) -
AUTHOR_ID
Publication year - 2001
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.31899/rh2001.1029
Subject(s) - recreation , reproductive health , unit (ring theory) , vocational education , positive youth development , population , life skills , socioeconomics , psychology , medicine , gerontology , medical education , environmental health , political science , sociology , pedagogy , developmental psychology , mathematics education , law
In 2000, the Reproductive Health Research Unit in KwaZulu Natal and the Population Council conducted an assessment of 12 youth centers and 7 affiliated peer education programs. The 12 centers, located in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas, offer very different services. The two centers of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health focus on providing reproductive health (RH) information and services to adolescents. The six centers of the Youth and Adolescent Reproductive Health Project provide a broader range of youth-friendly RH services, including counseling and life skills education, as well as modest recreational activities. The four centers run by loveLife have large multipurpose facilities with a wide range of recreational activities, vocational and life skills training, and RH services. This brief states that less than one-third of local youth have ever visited the youth centers in this study area of South Africa. More than half of the youth center visitors were sexually experienced but visiting a center had little discernible effect on RH knowledge or safer sexual behavior. Youth want friendly, nonjudgmental providers; youth-only facilities and young providers are less important.