Teen Peer Education in Mali

When I was in Bamako shortly after World AIDS day in December, our peer educator Socrates pulled me aside to talk about the Teen Peer Education program.

The program has been running for over a year now, with a total of 1,041 participating teens in 2015, and the majority of our participants are teen girls between 14 and 18 years old. Socrates pointed out that a large percentage of the population is living on the outskirts of the city where they don't easily access educational events or health services. His idea is to expand the program to these areas and start helping the teens run the sessions. 

The benefits of this plan is that, first of all, teens themselves would be stepping into leadership positions. Secondly, we would be increasing our impact 5-fold if we expanded to 4 new neighborhoods. In areas where teens have less access to information, they become more at-risk for sexually transmitted diseases or unplanned pregnancies.

We want to fully support Socrates initiative to grow this program and put teens in leadership positions.

Please join us is promoting teen health and education in Bamako!

Our Teen Peer Education program has been moving forward with great success!

We are reaching our target age group of girls between the ages of 14 and 18. One in 3 of our attendees is not in school; this is a very vulnerable sector of the population much in need of this program.  By keeping this program co-ed, we are ensuring that boys also have access to relevant reproductive health information.

Teens are enjoying their weekly education sessions with our expert Peer Educator, Socrates. They are able to sit together and learn about challenging subject matter like teen health issues, STDs, HIV and HPV without embarrassment. Socrates facilitates this open approach to learning with jokes and laughter. Parents have informed Socrates that their teens have begun behaving in a more mature manner. Some participants have asked Socrates to come to their classrooms to lead an education session. 

Now, it is time for us to think about the next steps. Interested teens will start to be trained to manage and run the sessions themselves. This program is very much appreciated by the participants, but we are planning strategically to keep this program rolling and allow it to have greatest effect among teens.

Join us in increasing teen’s access to health care information and empowering adolescents to be leaders among their peers!