As part of efforts to promote HIV prevention and SRHR messaging using digital platforms, ARFH trained 44 Ambassadors of its VibeSquare community as peer influencers and digital health content creators. The training which was organized by USAID funded ICHSSA-2 project focused on empowering Adolescents and Young People to act as positive influence on their peers while harnessing the growing influence of content creation and technology to engage and promote HIV prevention messages in a way that is fun and educative.
Speaking on behalf of the Project Management Team, ICHSSA-2 project, Mr. Kunle Osinowo, Strategic Information Manager emphasized the importance of meaningfully engaging adolescents and young people as positive peer influencers within their communities.
Delivering the first training session, Mr Lekan Oyekanmi, a digital health expert and CEO of Media4Health took the participants through digital storytelling and content creation tools and techniques. Ms Elizabeth Talatu-Williams, Executive Director of SID Initiative also delivered a session on HIV prevention and care, mental health and psychosocial support communication strategies for adolescents.
The participants were later grouped to brainstorm and create HIV prevention related contents, bringing to bear their learnings and diverse contextual knowledge. This enriched their connections and motivated them with the commitment to continue to put to good use their new skills and knowledge to transform their communities through digital content creation and crafting of HIV and SRHR messaging.
ARFH has for over 3 decades now implemented innovative public health interventions focused on empowering adolescents and young people with accurate health information to make informed decisions about their health so that they can live healthy and productive lives.
