Y-PEER Conference in Bulgaria

09.19.10

I just got back from a Y-PEER Advocacy Project Training in Bulgaria. Y-PEER is UNFPA’s youth peer-to-peer sexual and reproductive health network of over 500 NGOs worldwide in 36 countries.  Our Shymkent volunteers have become national representatives of the Y-PEER network in Kazakhstan, called Focal Points (FPs).  This means that they are trained on international Training of Trainers (ToTs), support participation in the network as well as national and local projects, and run projects on SRHR (Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights).  As our youth projects increased and were run solely by our organization’s youth leaders and volunteers, we decided to re-register our youth organization as an independent entity called the Youth Volunteer Leadership Center “Dostar,” which runs its projects autonomously and with youth leadership but receives guidance from experienced NGO mentors at the Association of Business Women. I am now a volunteer for both of the organizations, which is why I do both organizational and youth development work.

Y-PEER this year just started funding advocacy projects for its youth organizations, which is a big and difficult step as one can imagine.  Many of the countries they work in, including those in the post-Soviet space, have complex relationships with local government and decision makers.  Or sometimes, the relationships are in fact very simple, but unidirectional (no access to decision makers, top-down informational and power structure).

Our training was really fascinating because of the wide comparative perspective we got on the situation with regards to domestic politics, the state of SRHR, and the role of youth NGOs in different countries.  There were 8 nations and 9 organizations represented at our conference: Bulgaria, Macedonia, 2 Russian delegations (one from the North Caucasus),  Moldova, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.  Unfortunately what that meant was not everything in the training was directly applicable in the same way to everyone, as the standards for advocacy in the West (open meetings with or even criticism of your local government representatives) or EU countries just is not possible in many of the post-Soviet countries yet. 

That being said, we also learned some heartening things about Kazakhstan while doing our own research.  For example, did you know that the post-Soviet “Stans” have some of the most liberal abortion laws in the world (check out this comparative chart on Wikipedia)?  Abortion is allowed in virtually all situations based on a woman’s choice up to the first trimester, and for a wide variety of reasons afterwards.  Unfortunately however it is often used as a method of contraception in absence of education about other safer, earlier methods of birth control. Illegal, unregistered abortions in unsafe conditions are also common, not least because youth under the age of 18 cannot obtain medical services without their parents’ consent (one of the big legal barriers we learned about on our visits to our local Youth Health Center in Shymkent, where the gynecologist and therapist on staff can only give "consultations" and referrals, but not prescriptions, tests or treatment).  Clearly, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Our project I think reaches a very good compromise between the need for advocacy and the reality of our local situation.  We chose to focus on media advocacy, which uses mass media coverage to reach the attention of both decision makers and the public. Our project seeks to ensure that accurate information is disseminated by the media and that any dialogue containing stigmatizing marginalized groups is replaced by neutral and professional discourse.  Our first media advocacy training will focus on discrimination against PLWH (People Living With HIV).  Among the advantages of media advocacy is that “news items in the media tend to carry more credibility than those presented in paid media advertisements or in public relations material” ["Media Advocacy," Encyclopedia of Public Health], including material we ourselves could produce as an NGO. Also, mass media effectively reaches decision makers who monitor news stories in the community.  We will be running a journalist training in late October and then facilitating the mass media outputs that result from the training on PLWH rights and HIV awareness.  Then in December we will have a final press conference with government officials, journalists, our constituency group (PLWH) and other community members.  We’re very excited for our project – big thanks to the Y-PEER PETRI Sofia team in Bulgaria for their project support and for running such an interesting training!

[Y-PEER!]

[Group picture of all the project teams at our beautiful resort in Pravets, Bulgaria – 60 km out of Sofia]

[Zau and I represented the Kazakhstan project team <3]

[Our project plan!]

[Pictures of the gorgeous Pravets resort's spa and pool, complete with Finnish and Russian banyas, an herbal sauna, crazy showers and even an ice room (!)]

[One of the best side benefits of the trip was getting to meet up with both Filip and Jenny, my lovely Bulgarian friends from Harvard.  Last time I was in Sofia was in 2005 to visit Jenny, and it was so great to see her (and her brother!) again!]

[On our way back, Zau and I detour briefly to Ukraine to wait out our layover in Kiev.  We did not order the "Fat on-Kyivski," sadly]

PS: A final resource that was shared with us at the Y-PEER training that EVERYONE should read for their own edification: RSFU sexual education publications that tell you everything you would want to know about sexual organs, sexuality, reproductive health, virginity, condoms, abortion, prostitution, etc. in simple and concise language.  Especially notable are the resources for working specifically with young men on SRHR and gender work.  Read and distribute to all your friends!