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stories

Stories

Latest stories from IPPF EN

Spotlight

A selection of stories from across the Federation

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Romania

Story

Roma Women in Romania Face Old and New Threats to Abortion Care Access

Roma women and girls face multiple barriers to abortion care in Romania. Far more needs to be done to protect their rights, says Roxana-Magdalena Oprea of E-Romnja.
YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 15 October 2022

"Teachers are too embarrassed to talk about sex. It would be better to talk to young people at an earlier age."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Erblin Berisha is a 21-year-old from Prishtina, Kosovo. He is studying web development.    Describe your experience of access to SRHR* education, information and care before and during COVID. COVID limited our access to SRHR because of measures like we had to wear masks and could go out for just two hours a day with our ID cards. Information was less accessible because NGOs couldn’t hold their activities. If we were interested, we could Google a topic - I did this. But before the pandemic there were activities that were a good way to let everyone know about sexual health risks. Here in Kosovo it’s kind of difficult for SRHR to be taken seriously because there’s an old mentality of not talking about sexual health. Now, that we are out of the pandemic I suppose information is more accessible – thank god, because it is really important.   Do you think anything changed for the better during COVID? Not, really no. I think a lot of things improved digitally during the pandemic, but not access to SRHR information. It was kind of like a forgotten subject, so the only information people got was how to deal with COVID-19, but they never really talked about sexual health.   What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   The people who provide information on SRHR are already doing their best by building young people’s awareness and developing activities. I’m not sure if this did happen, but it would have been helpful during the pandemic to hold online meetings on SRHR, to give people knowledge about how to keep themselves safe.   What lessons do you think that governments and professionals like doctors should take from COVID about how to look after young people health? I don`t think they learned any lessons, because after the pandemic everyone acted like COVID was gone and there were no improvements, like people forgot about sexual health actually.   What is your number one recommendation of what is needed to make services youth-friendly? I would say probably make people aware of these issues from an early age. One problem is that teachers don’t want to talk about this stuff because it’s embarrassing; that happened to me at school, when sex was mentioned, the kids all started laughing and didn’t care about the lesson, and the teacher got embarrassed and just told us to read the materials at home, which probably nobody did. It would better to actually talk about this earlier on.   What difference would this make in your life, or your friends' lives? Having more knowledge about SRHR would help us to be prepared and able to take care of ourselves.   So, I guess you took part in SRHR activities, right? What helped you to become engaged as an educator? Yes. Honestly, there were a lot of benefits. Even though I started when I was at university, I still learned a lot of stuff that I didn`t know before. At first I didn’t care so much about some of the issues, I just thought they were interesting and it would probably be useful to know more. But when I started being a part of a group, it was about gender equality and other SRHR issues, and it was good to learn more about something that you need in your life.    * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Elionita Rexhepaj and Elsa Rexhepaj, members of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 25 October 2022

"Teachers are too embarrassed to talk about sex. It would be better to talk to young people at an earlier age."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Erblin Berisha is a 21-year-old from Prishtina, Kosovo. He is studying web development.    Describe your experience of access to SRHR* education, information and care before and during COVID. COVID limited our access to SRHR because of measures like we had to wear masks and could go out for just two hours a day with our ID cards. Information was less accessible because NGOs couldn’t hold their activities. If we were interested, we could Google a topic - I did this. But before the pandemic there were activities that were a good way to let everyone know about sexual health risks. Here in Kosovo it’s kind of difficult for SRHR to be taken seriously because there’s an old mentality of not talking about sexual health. Now, that we are out of the pandemic I suppose information is more accessible – thank god, because it is really important.   Do you think anything changed for the better during COVID? Not, really no. I think a lot of things improved digitally during the pandemic, but not access to SRHR information. It was kind of like a forgotten subject, so the only information people got was how to deal with COVID-19, but they never really talked about sexual health.   What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   The people who provide information on SRHR are already doing their best by building young people’s awareness and developing activities. I’m not sure if this did happen, but it would have been helpful during the pandemic to hold online meetings on SRHR, to give people knowledge about how to keep themselves safe.   What lessons do you think that governments and professionals like doctors should take from COVID about how to look after young people health? I don`t think they learned any lessons, because after the pandemic everyone acted like COVID was gone and there were no improvements, like people forgot about sexual health actually.   What is your number one recommendation of what is needed to make services youth-friendly? I would say probably make people aware of these issues from an early age. One problem is that teachers don’t want to talk about this stuff because it’s embarrassing; that happened to me at school, when sex was mentioned, the kids all started laughing and didn’t care about the lesson, and the teacher got embarrassed and just told us to read the materials at home, which probably nobody did. It would better to actually talk about this earlier on.   What difference would this make in your life, or your friends' lives? Having more knowledge about SRHR would help us to be prepared and able to take care of ourselves.   So, I guess you took part in SRHR activities, right? What helped you to become engaged as an educator? Yes. Honestly, there were a lot of benefits. Even though I started when I was at university, I still learned a lot of stuff that I didn`t know before. At first I didn’t care so much about some of the issues, I just thought they were interesting and it would probably be useful to know more. But when I started being a part of a group, it was about gender equality and other SRHR issues, and it was good to learn more about something that you need in your life.    * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Elionita Rexhepaj and Elsa Rexhepaj, members of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 15 October 2022

"The internet can sometimes be an obstacle to health and wellbeing. We need doctors to give us the right information."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Tarin Husic is a 21-year-old student from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Tarin, describe your experience of access to SRHR* education, information and care before and during COVID. Before COVID I was in high school where we had a few different education sessions and lectures about this topic. As we were not that familiar with a lot of things regarding SRHR, that was the time we should have been learning about it. After the pandemic started, life turned upside down and everything strived to be held online. During COVID, I had some problems relating to SRHR, so I wanted to inform myself more and more. One of the ways was to surf the internet and find all the necessary information. Doctors were better options, as we can take them more seriously. They would always draw my attention to SRHR-related issues, and in that way, I was able to gain knowledge and more information.   Did anything change for the better for you during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? During the pandemic, I had a lot of time to think about things like SRHR and to pay more attention to my health in general. The internet was full of different information, including SRHR. I think that education, especially after the peak of the pandemic, should be taken more seriously, since there is a chance that people will pay much more attention to their health and how to improve it, or how to protect themselves, after surviving all those moments of isolation and restrictions.   What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   Honestly, the internet sometimes can be an obstacle. You always find the harshest facts and information, besides what is useful. As you read all those things, your thoughts become more negative, and you start thinking in the wrong direction. Doctors' role is to give us the right information - otherwise we get carried away. We need them to be available and able to explain things, as well as drawing our attention to what is most important.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? I think the best way is to talk to young people and to see in which direction they are thinking, to try changing their perspectives to be as positive as possible. Young people are very often afraid to freely express themselves about something they need or about anything that is in their thoughts, and that should be taken into consideration. Sometimes they need to be given space to relax and talk about SRHR openly, since it is not yet a common topic in our surroundings.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? I think that workshops, projects, and educational programs could be very useful to raise young people’s the awareness, knowledge and skills, since this topic tends to be avoided at our age. It would be important to try and organize some kind of education or just workshops that would keep young people interested. Then the topic would become less taboo and people would talk more openly about it, because in our country not many people have developed a culture of talking about topics like SRHR.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Ajla-Ena Burnazovic, a member of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 25 October 2022

"The internet can sometimes be an obstacle to health and wellbeing. We need doctors to give us the right information."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Tarin Husic is a 21-year-old student from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Tarin, describe your experience of access to SRHR* education, information and care before and during COVID. Before COVID I was in high school where we had a few different education sessions and lectures about this topic. As we were not that familiar with a lot of things regarding SRHR, that was the time we should have been learning about it. After the pandemic started, life turned upside down and everything strived to be held online. During COVID, I had some problems relating to SRHR, so I wanted to inform myself more and more. One of the ways was to surf the internet and find all the necessary information. Doctors were better options, as we can take them more seriously. They would always draw my attention to SRHR-related issues, and in that way, I was able to gain knowledge and more information.   Did anything change for the better for you during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? During the pandemic, I had a lot of time to think about things like SRHR and to pay more attention to my health in general. The internet was full of different information, including SRHR. I think that education, especially after the peak of the pandemic, should be taken more seriously, since there is a chance that people will pay much more attention to their health and how to improve it, or how to protect themselves, after surviving all those moments of isolation and restrictions.   What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   Honestly, the internet sometimes can be an obstacle. You always find the harshest facts and information, besides what is useful. As you read all those things, your thoughts become more negative, and you start thinking in the wrong direction. Doctors' role is to give us the right information - otherwise we get carried away. We need them to be available and able to explain things, as well as drawing our attention to what is most important.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? I think the best way is to talk to young people and to see in which direction they are thinking, to try changing their perspectives to be as positive as possible. Young people are very often afraid to freely express themselves about something they need or about anything that is in their thoughts, and that should be taken into consideration. Sometimes they need to be given space to relax and talk about SRHR openly, since it is not yet a common topic in our surroundings.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? I think that workshops, projects, and educational programs could be very useful to raise young people’s the awareness, knowledge and skills, since this topic tends to be avoided at our age. It would be important to try and organize some kind of education or just workshops that would keep young people interested. Then the topic would become less taboo and people would talk more openly about it, because in our country not many people have developed a culture of talking about topics like SRHR.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Ajla-Ena Burnazovic, a member of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 13 October 2022

"Care providers need more training so that they have the knowledge to answer young people's questions."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  This 23-year-old LGBTIQ man from Bosnia and Herzegovina is a medical worker and an activist for youth SRHR*. As a volunteer peer educator, he supports other young people to learn and develop crucial life skills relating to their sexual and reproductive health.   Describe your experience of access to SRHR education, information and care before and during COVID. Before COVID, I received information through some NGOs and if I went directly to the doctor. Very little was said about these topics in our country and information was only visible if I searched for it myself. Then during the pandemic everything moved to the internet and a lot of information started to be shared on social networks.   Did anything change for the better for you during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? The pandemic has helped a lot in terms of better content and more accurate information on the internet. A new trend has been born, where influencers started to create content and dedicate their profiles to these topics. Thanks to the excellent response, this trend continued even after COVID and became part of everyday life. We forgot how to do things in person, so we left a lot of it to online platforms. I think that no matter how many shortcomings there are, it is very good because of the availability of information to everyone.   What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have improved this?   Unfortunately, during the pandemic, SRHR was not always in focus because of the “war” response to the virus. The high death rate and people’s fear of COVID meant that there was not much focus on the topic, and little media attention. People sadly still don’t understand the importance of SRHR. What could have changed is that doctors and politicians should have spoken more publicly about this topic and raised people’s awareness, but unfortunately they didn't do that.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? A very important lesson they should have learned is that they were not taking the right approach towards young people. If we have interesting and educational content, peer educators and youth leaders can easily reach them. It’s important to talk about taboo topics that every young person faces. We can only achieve change by changing the approach and understanding their needs.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? I recommend that more workshops be held to provide information to health workers and people who work directly with young people so that they can provide answers to their questions. Care and support providers are often prevented from providing young people with accurate information because they themselves learn and receive information in an old-fashioned way. Lack of knowledge is the key to the problem.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Azra Mehmedovic, a member of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 25 October 2022

"Care providers need more training so that they have the knowledge to answer young people's questions."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  This 23-year-old LGBTIQ man from Bosnia and Herzegovina is a medical worker and an activist for youth SRHR*. As a volunteer peer educator, he supports other young people to learn and develop crucial life skills relating to their sexual and reproductive health.   Describe your experience of access to SRHR education, information and care before and during COVID. Before COVID, I received information through some NGOs and if I went directly to the doctor. Very little was said about these topics in our country and information was only visible if I searched for it myself. Then during the pandemic everything moved to the internet and a lot of information started to be shared on social networks.   Did anything change for the better for you during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? The pandemic has helped a lot in terms of better content and more accurate information on the internet. A new trend has been born, where influencers started to create content and dedicate their profiles to these topics. Thanks to the excellent response, this trend continued even after COVID and became part of everyday life. We forgot how to do things in person, so we left a lot of it to online platforms. I think that no matter how many shortcomings there are, it is very good because of the availability of information to everyone.   What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have improved this?   Unfortunately, during the pandemic, SRHR was not always in focus because of the “war” response to the virus. The high death rate and people’s fear of COVID meant that there was not much focus on the topic, and little media attention. People sadly still don’t understand the importance of SRHR. What could have changed is that doctors and politicians should have spoken more publicly about this topic and raised people’s awareness, but unfortunately they didn't do that.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? A very important lesson they should have learned is that they were not taking the right approach towards young people. If we have interesting and educational content, peer educators and youth leaders can easily reach them. It’s important to talk about taboo topics that every young person faces. We can only achieve change by changing the approach and understanding their needs.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? I recommend that more workshops be held to provide information to health workers and people who work directly with young people so that they can provide answers to their questions. Care and support providers are often prevented from providing young people with accurate information because they themselves learn and receive information in an old-fashioned way. Lack of knowledge is the key to the problem.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Azra Mehmedovic, a member of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of group of young people
story

| 13 October 2022

"I have managed to help people feel happier with themselves and in their bodies."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Lana is a 17-year-old from Bosnia and Herzegovina who works as a volunteer peer educator, supporting other young people to develop crucial life skills relating to SRHR*.   Lana, describe your experience of access to SRHR education, information and care before and during COVID. In terms of overall SRHR education before and during COVID-19, I was very uneducated. At the beginning, I was 14 years old, so personally, I considered talking about SRHR topics very embarrassing and taboo. I was a kid and did not know that it is totally normal and important to talk about SRHR at that age. I live in a country where it is usually seen as “weird” to talk about SRHR, especially at my age at the time, so I felt like I shouldn’t participate in discussions on the topic. I was very uninformed and took minimal care of myself as regards SRHR, especially during COVID. It was a very hard time for everyone, and I was still finding myself, so it was really difficult for me to put priorities in the right place, especially with everything closed down; I had no access to any kind of SRHR education.   Did anything change for the better for you during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? How are things now? Sadly, nothing changed for the better during the pandemic. I was still just a kid and SRHR was a taboo topic for me and I was very uninformed. Luckily, after the pandemic, I started to realize that it’s totally normal and important to talk about sexual and reproductive health. Now I tend to help everyone who feels unsafe talking about it to realize that it is not taboo, as I used to think, and actually very important. I feel safe in my own body and I make sure I access education about SRHR as much as I need to. I make sure to take care of myself as regards to healthcare and I have been feeling a lot better, happier and safer since.   What was the biggest obstacle/challenge to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   My biggest challenge was overcoming the fact that SRHR is not seen as a normal topic to talk about and cover, especially for a 14 year old. Speaking to a professional, either a medical professional or my parents, would have helped a lot. I would have felt safer talking about the topic and would have realized from a young age that it is a totally normal topic to cover and is important for keeping myself healthy and happy.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? Listening. A lot of young people, including me, were afraid to open up. I lacked in-person communication and it has affected my SRHR education a lot. Personally, a heartfelt recommendation to professionals working with young people on this topic is to talk with them as much as they need to and as much as those young people feel the need to talk. I think it is very important for us to get heard and someone listening to our insecurities about talking over a specific topic would help youngsters open up and understand that it is not a taboo topic. COVID has made me realize that, if I have a question or a problem as regards to SRHR, I would want myself to be heard and for a professional to really listen to me and help me. I think it would help other young people a lot.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? What difference would this make in the life of a young person like you? Again, greater availability of professionals in health centres. It is very important for our voices and thoughts to be heard. It is a great way of helping us and making us understand that people really do listen to us and really do want to help us. It would help a lot, like it helped me.   What helped you to become engaged as a peer educator on SRHR? How has this experience been so far? I have been through a lot of things in life. I want to help people understand that it is okay if we all have our problems but I also want to help people lead their life in the right direction, overcoming those problems. I love helping people. I love seeing smiles on their faces after something that they thought might ruin their day and then overcoming it. It is the most beautiful thing ever. I want to educate people on various topics and help them understand that we, young people, are as much of a person as adults are. We have our own problems too. We also want to be heard. We also want to get educated on topics that are socially labelled as “inappropriate to youngsters”, but are as a matter of fact, just put that way by society and are totally normal to be addressed from teenage years. My experience as an educator has been wonderful. I had managed to help people open up, feel happier with themselves and in their bodies and realize that life is beautiful if you make it your own utopia. I love this hobby of mine and hope to continue it as long as I can.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by the Institute for Population and Development, IPPF's member in BiH, as part of the project  Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of group of young people
story

| 25 October 2022

"I have managed to help people feel happier with themselves and in their bodies."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Lana is a 17-year-old from Bosnia and Herzegovina who works as a volunteer peer educator, supporting other young people to develop crucial life skills relating to SRHR*.   Lana, describe your experience of access to SRHR education, information and care before and during COVID. In terms of overall SRHR education before and during COVID-19, I was very uneducated. At the beginning, I was 14 years old, so personally, I considered talking about SRHR topics very embarrassing and taboo. I was a kid and did not know that it is totally normal and important to talk about SRHR at that age. I live in a country where it is usually seen as “weird” to talk about SRHR, especially at my age at the time, so I felt like I shouldn’t participate in discussions on the topic. I was very uninformed and took minimal care of myself as regards SRHR, especially during COVID. It was a very hard time for everyone, and I was still finding myself, so it was really difficult for me to put priorities in the right place, especially with everything closed down; I had no access to any kind of SRHR education.   Did anything change for the better for you during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? How are things now? Sadly, nothing changed for the better during the pandemic. I was still just a kid and SRHR was a taboo topic for me and I was very uninformed. Luckily, after the pandemic, I started to realize that it’s totally normal and important to talk about sexual and reproductive health. Now I tend to help everyone who feels unsafe talking about it to realize that it is not taboo, as I used to think, and actually very important. I feel safe in my own body and I make sure I access education about SRHR as much as I need to. I make sure to take care of myself as regards to healthcare and I have been feeling a lot better, happier and safer since.   What was the biggest obstacle/challenge to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   My biggest challenge was overcoming the fact that SRHR is not seen as a normal topic to talk about and cover, especially for a 14 year old. Speaking to a professional, either a medical professional or my parents, would have helped a lot. I would have felt safer talking about the topic and would have realized from a young age that it is a totally normal topic to cover and is important for keeping myself healthy and happy.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? Listening. A lot of young people, including me, were afraid to open up. I lacked in-person communication and it has affected my SRHR education a lot. Personally, a heartfelt recommendation to professionals working with young people on this topic is to talk with them as much as they need to and as much as those young people feel the need to talk. I think it is very important for us to get heard and someone listening to our insecurities about talking over a specific topic would help youngsters open up and understand that it is not a taboo topic. COVID has made me realize that, if I have a question or a problem as regards to SRHR, I would want myself to be heard and for a professional to really listen to me and help me. I think it would help other young people a lot.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? What difference would this make in the life of a young person like you? Again, greater availability of professionals in health centres. It is very important for our voices and thoughts to be heard. It is a great way of helping us and making us understand that people really do listen to us and really do want to help us. It would help a lot, like it helped me.   What helped you to become engaged as a peer educator on SRHR? How has this experience been so far? I have been through a lot of things in life. I want to help people understand that it is okay if we all have our problems but I also want to help people lead their life in the right direction, overcoming those problems. I love helping people. I love seeing smiles on their faces after something that they thought might ruin their day and then overcoming it. It is the most beautiful thing ever. I want to educate people on various topics and help them understand that we, young people, are as much of a person as adults are. We have our own problems too. We also want to be heard. We also want to get educated on topics that are socially labelled as “inappropriate to youngsters”, but are as a matter of fact, just put that way by society and are totally normal to be addressed from teenage years. My experience as an educator has been wonderful. I had managed to help people open up, feel happier with themselves and in their bodies and realize that life is beautiful if you make it your own utopia. I love this hobby of mine and hope to continue it as long as I can.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by the Institute for Population and Development, IPPF's member in BiH, as part of the project  Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 13 October 2022

"It's so important in a crisis like COVID that nobody gets left behind."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Timur is a 17-year-old from Bosnia and Herzegovina who works as a volunteer peer educator, supporting other young people to develop crucial life skills relating to SRHR*.   Timur, describe your experience of access to SRHR education, information and care before and during COVID.  Before COVID, it was much easier to work on trainings and projects related to SRHR. Everything was done live and with the mutual interaction of participants and lecturers. Although we quickly adjusted during the pandemic, communication was difficult without live contact, but we successfully kept things going. As a peer educator and a young person, I had great access to information about SRHR. I knew who to turn to, but most other young people didn't. During COVID it was very difficult to find accurate information about SRHR.   Did anything change for the better during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? If so, has this continued since COVID is no longer an urgent crisis?  Yes, the pandemic has allowed us to get to know online tools better, and this enables us to process some topics in a much more interesting way. We have continued to use some methods we discovered in the first phase of COVID because we saw that they were easier but also better or more interesting for the participants themselves.    What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? The biggest challenge for peer educators was how to reach young people to provide information about SRHR. But even for me as a young person it was very difficult to find information and to reach professionals in health centres who deal with SRHR. The next challenge was that most of the NGOs in my vicinity closed their open centers and youth centers. Before the pandemic, young people could find all relevant information in these places. Now, most youth centres are open again, though some are working at reduced capacity.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? I think it's important that authorities and health professionals learn how important it is to have a ready response to crisis situations. And how important it is that in situations like this, they "leave no one behind". They should focus even more on health and ensure the availability of services for vulnerable groups. The next thing that governments and health professionals could learn is that online tools are very important and can be useful.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? What difference would this make in the life of a young person like you? I think it is important to introduce many more online platforms that offer answers to young people's questions. That way we have access to accurate information. It would make a difference because young people would use accurate information they got from qualified people via the internet, where they spend a lot of time today, and not the false information they find on portals, written by people who are not experts in these topics.   What helped you to become engaged as a peer educator and activist for SRHR? How has this experience been so far? It helped me to get more involved when I saw how much benefit and importance it has, both for me and for all those who participate. With small steps, we change the consciousness of society and educate people about topics that are present in their environment.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by the Institute for Population and Development, IPPF's member in BiH, as part of the project  Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers  

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 25 October 2022

"It's so important in a crisis like COVID that nobody gets left behind."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Timur is a 17-year-old from Bosnia and Herzegovina who works as a volunteer peer educator, supporting other young people to develop crucial life skills relating to SRHR*.   Timur, describe your experience of access to SRHR education, information and care before and during COVID.  Before COVID, it was much easier to work on trainings and projects related to SRHR. Everything was done live and with the mutual interaction of participants and lecturers. Although we quickly adjusted during the pandemic, communication was difficult without live contact, but we successfully kept things going. As a peer educator and a young person, I had great access to information about SRHR. I knew who to turn to, but most other young people didn't. During COVID it was very difficult to find accurate information about SRHR.   Did anything change for the better during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? If so, has this continued since COVID is no longer an urgent crisis?  Yes, the pandemic has allowed us to get to know online tools better, and this enables us to process some topics in a much more interesting way. We have continued to use some methods we discovered in the first phase of COVID because we saw that they were easier but also better or more interesting for the participants themselves.    What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? The biggest challenge for peer educators was how to reach young people to provide information about SRHR. But even for me as a young person it was very difficult to find information and to reach professionals in health centres who deal with SRHR. The next challenge was that most of the NGOs in my vicinity closed their open centers and youth centers. Before the pandemic, young people could find all relevant information in these places. Now, most youth centres are open again, though some are working at reduced capacity.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? I think it's important that authorities and health professionals learn how important it is to have a ready response to crisis situations. And how important it is that in situations like this, they "leave no one behind". They should focus even more on health and ensure the availability of services for vulnerable groups. The next thing that governments and health professionals could learn is that online tools are very important and can be useful.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? What difference would this make in the life of a young person like you? I think it is important to introduce many more online platforms that offer answers to young people's questions. That way we have access to accurate information. It would make a difference because young people would use accurate information they got from qualified people via the internet, where they spend a lot of time today, and not the false information they find on portals, written by people who are not experts in these topics.   What helped you to become engaged as a peer educator and activist for SRHR? How has this experience been so far? It helped me to get more involved when I saw how much benefit and importance it has, both for me and for all those who participate. With small steps, we change the consciousness of society and educate people about topics that are present in their environment.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by the Institute for Population and Development, IPPF's member in BiH, as part of the project  Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers  

YVYC illustration young people advocating
story

| 13 October 2022

"It would make a real difference if we could be open with health professionals about what really concerns us."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Alex is a 19-year-old LGBTIQ girl, studying at university in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. As a peer educator, she supports other young people to learn and develop crucial life skills relating to their sexual and reproductive health.   Alex, describe your experience of access to SRHR* education, information and care before and during COVID.  My access to sexual and reproductive healthcare before COVID was relatively normal, for example a gynaecologist visit, but during the pandemic, it was rather harder to go because I had to present a negative COVID test to be examined. At some point, in-person consultations with doctors were extremely limited, unless it was with reference to COVID or life-threatening - so regular check-ups were not really happening. I didn’t receive any adequate sexuality education either before or during the pandemic. The only time sexual health was discussed in my 12 years of schooling was back in elementary school and it only included only a talk with the girls on menstrual pads and periods. I believe online information became more accessible because of COVID. As a result of the limited consultations with professionals, more people sought answers on the Internet. Of course, we must keep in mind that information has to be checked carefully. Also, reliable information in Bulgarian is very limited.   Did anything change for the better during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? I suppose more information regarding SRHR became available online because of the huge demand. A good thing is that the information is still relevant today even though COVID is no longer an urgent crisis. Personally, I got into the habit of looking for answers myself and checking if the source was reliable or not. Other than that, I would not say that COVID had any positives.   What was the biggest challenge to young people’s SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   One of the biggest problems was the misleading and unreliable sources of information about sexual and reproductive health. In addition, adequate information is mostly in English. I believe a fact-checking system to verify all factual information could be helpful in preventing the spread of misinformation. I faced that problem when I and other 3 friends conducted a few educational workshops on the topic of comprehensive sexuality education. While putting together the information we needed, we came across numerous invalid data and false statements.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis?   From what I have seen, many adults do not seem to understand the burden this crisis has had on us and therefore neglect our mental health. Affordable and regular psychologist appointments should be a priority. There is this stigma around mental health that you seek help only if you are “not normal”. That is completely false and puts our generation under pressure and makes us not take proper care of our well-being (which often includes going to a psychologist). Also, many of the professionals (both teachers and medical practitioners) were sharing their personal and controversial opinion on the pandemic and vaccinations which has to be limited. A personal experience I had was when I went to get vaccinated and my GP would not allow me to, saying that it was unnecessary and even “dangerous”.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? What difference would this make in the life of a young person like you? More young and inclusive professionals working in the sphere are needed. For example, many of my female peers insist that female gynecologists examine them. LGBT+ inclusivity is also important, as currently many of us cannot share a key part of our life neither with a gynecologist nor a psychologist. The difference would be that we will be more open and share what really concerns us so we can seek adequate help. It is much easier to talk to someone close to your age or background.   What helped you to become engaged as an activist? How has this experience been so far? The idea that I can do something about the desperate need for a change and make my voice heard was what helped me get involved. So far, I mostly enjoy working with other young people and seeing them as determined and hopeful as I am. Every new idea has been welcomed with enthusiasm and encouragement by many of my peers, which makes it clear that youngsters are looking forward to a change and improvement. However, as I mentioned, we held several workshops about comprehensive sexuality education and we faced many obstacles. The project was very scarcely funded, which made it very hard to implement properly and exactly how we have envisioned it. Also, finding people to attend the workshops was fairly hard as well and we could not get any support from our teachers and school staff. They did not welcome the idea because the topics of sexual health and LGBT+ inclusivity are still taboo in our society - so they were scared of how the parents would react. On the other hand, the people that came to the workshops had very encouraging feedback and even a demand for more similar events. * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Viktoria Nikolova, a member of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration young people advocating
story

| 25 October 2022

"It would make a real difference if we could be open with health professionals about what really concerns us."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Alex is a 19-year-old LGBTIQ girl, studying at university in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. As a peer educator, she supports other young people to learn and develop crucial life skills relating to their sexual and reproductive health.   Alex, describe your experience of access to SRHR* education, information and care before and during COVID.  My access to sexual and reproductive healthcare before COVID was relatively normal, for example a gynaecologist visit, but during the pandemic, it was rather harder to go because I had to present a negative COVID test to be examined. At some point, in-person consultations with doctors were extremely limited, unless it was with reference to COVID or life-threatening - so regular check-ups were not really happening. I didn’t receive any adequate sexuality education either before or during the pandemic. The only time sexual health was discussed in my 12 years of schooling was back in elementary school and it only included only a talk with the girls on menstrual pads and periods. I believe online information became more accessible because of COVID. As a result of the limited consultations with professionals, more people sought answers on the Internet. Of course, we must keep in mind that information has to be checked carefully. Also, reliable information in Bulgarian is very limited.   Did anything change for the better during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? I suppose more information regarding SRHR became available online because of the huge demand. A good thing is that the information is still relevant today even though COVID is no longer an urgent crisis. Personally, I got into the habit of looking for answers myself and checking if the source was reliable or not. Other than that, I would not say that COVID had any positives.   What was the biggest challenge to young people’s SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   One of the biggest problems was the misleading and unreliable sources of information about sexual and reproductive health. In addition, adequate information is mostly in English. I believe a fact-checking system to verify all factual information could be helpful in preventing the spread of misinformation. I faced that problem when I and other 3 friends conducted a few educational workshops on the topic of comprehensive sexuality education. While putting together the information we needed, we came across numerous invalid data and false statements.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis?   From what I have seen, many adults do not seem to understand the burden this crisis has had on us and therefore neglect our mental health. Affordable and regular psychologist appointments should be a priority. There is this stigma around mental health that you seek help only if you are “not normal”. That is completely false and puts our generation under pressure and makes us not take proper care of our well-being (which often includes going to a psychologist). Also, many of the professionals (both teachers and medical practitioners) were sharing their personal and controversial opinion on the pandemic and vaccinations which has to be limited. A personal experience I had was when I went to get vaccinated and my GP would not allow me to, saying that it was unnecessary and even “dangerous”.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? What difference would this make in the life of a young person like you? More young and inclusive professionals working in the sphere are needed. For example, many of my female peers insist that female gynecologists examine them. LGBT+ inclusivity is also important, as currently many of us cannot share a key part of our life neither with a gynecologist nor a psychologist. The difference would be that we will be more open and share what really concerns us so we can seek adequate help. It is much easier to talk to someone close to your age or background.   What helped you to become engaged as an activist? How has this experience been so far? The idea that I can do something about the desperate need for a change and make my voice heard was what helped me get involved. So far, I mostly enjoy working with other young people and seeing them as determined and hopeful as I am. Every new idea has been welcomed with enthusiasm and encouragement by many of my peers, which makes it clear that youngsters are looking forward to a change and improvement. However, as I mentioned, we held several workshops about comprehensive sexuality education and we faced many obstacles. The project was very scarcely funded, which made it very hard to implement properly and exactly how we have envisioned it. Also, finding people to attend the workshops was fairly hard as well and we could not get any support from our teachers and school staff. They did not welcome the idea because the topics of sexual health and LGBT+ inclusivity are still taboo in our society - so they were scared of how the parents would react. On the other hand, the people that came to the workshops had very encouraging feedback and even a demand for more similar events. * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Viktoria Nikolova, a member of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 15 October 2022

"Teachers are too embarrassed to talk about sex. It would be better to talk to young people at an earlier age."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Erblin Berisha is a 21-year-old from Prishtina, Kosovo. He is studying web development.    Describe your experience of access to SRHR* education, information and care before and during COVID. COVID limited our access to SRHR because of measures like we had to wear masks and could go out for just two hours a day with our ID cards. Information was less accessible because NGOs couldn’t hold their activities. If we were interested, we could Google a topic - I did this. But before the pandemic there were activities that were a good way to let everyone know about sexual health risks. Here in Kosovo it’s kind of difficult for SRHR to be taken seriously because there’s an old mentality of not talking about sexual health. Now, that we are out of the pandemic I suppose information is more accessible – thank god, because it is really important.   Do you think anything changed for the better during COVID? Not, really no. I think a lot of things improved digitally during the pandemic, but not access to SRHR information. It was kind of like a forgotten subject, so the only information people got was how to deal with COVID-19, but they never really talked about sexual health.   What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   The people who provide information on SRHR are already doing their best by building young people’s awareness and developing activities. I’m not sure if this did happen, but it would have been helpful during the pandemic to hold online meetings on SRHR, to give people knowledge about how to keep themselves safe.   What lessons do you think that governments and professionals like doctors should take from COVID about how to look after young people health? I don`t think they learned any lessons, because after the pandemic everyone acted like COVID was gone and there were no improvements, like people forgot about sexual health actually.   What is your number one recommendation of what is needed to make services youth-friendly? I would say probably make people aware of these issues from an early age. One problem is that teachers don’t want to talk about this stuff because it’s embarrassing; that happened to me at school, when sex was mentioned, the kids all started laughing and didn’t care about the lesson, and the teacher got embarrassed and just told us to read the materials at home, which probably nobody did. It would better to actually talk about this earlier on.   What difference would this make in your life, or your friends' lives? Having more knowledge about SRHR would help us to be prepared and able to take care of ourselves.   So, I guess you took part in SRHR activities, right? What helped you to become engaged as an educator? Yes. Honestly, there were a lot of benefits. Even though I started when I was at university, I still learned a lot of stuff that I didn`t know before. At first I didn’t care so much about some of the issues, I just thought they were interesting and it would probably be useful to know more. But when I started being a part of a group, it was about gender equality and other SRHR issues, and it was good to learn more about something that you need in your life.    * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Elionita Rexhepaj and Elsa Rexhepaj, members of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 25 October 2022

"Teachers are too embarrassed to talk about sex. It would be better to talk to young people at an earlier age."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Erblin Berisha is a 21-year-old from Prishtina, Kosovo. He is studying web development.    Describe your experience of access to SRHR* education, information and care before and during COVID. COVID limited our access to SRHR because of measures like we had to wear masks and could go out for just two hours a day with our ID cards. Information was less accessible because NGOs couldn’t hold their activities. If we were interested, we could Google a topic - I did this. But before the pandemic there were activities that were a good way to let everyone know about sexual health risks. Here in Kosovo it’s kind of difficult for SRHR to be taken seriously because there’s an old mentality of not talking about sexual health. Now, that we are out of the pandemic I suppose information is more accessible – thank god, because it is really important.   Do you think anything changed for the better during COVID? Not, really no. I think a lot of things improved digitally during the pandemic, but not access to SRHR information. It was kind of like a forgotten subject, so the only information people got was how to deal with COVID-19, but they never really talked about sexual health.   What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   The people who provide information on SRHR are already doing their best by building young people’s awareness and developing activities. I’m not sure if this did happen, but it would have been helpful during the pandemic to hold online meetings on SRHR, to give people knowledge about how to keep themselves safe.   What lessons do you think that governments and professionals like doctors should take from COVID about how to look after young people health? I don`t think they learned any lessons, because after the pandemic everyone acted like COVID was gone and there were no improvements, like people forgot about sexual health actually.   What is your number one recommendation of what is needed to make services youth-friendly? I would say probably make people aware of these issues from an early age. One problem is that teachers don’t want to talk about this stuff because it’s embarrassing; that happened to me at school, when sex was mentioned, the kids all started laughing and didn’t care about the lesson, and the teacher got embarrassed and just told us to read the materials at home, which probably nobody did. It would better to actually talk about this earlier on.   What difference would this make in your life, or your friends' lives? Having more knowledge about SRHR would help us to be prepared and able to take care of ourselves.   So, I guess you took part in SRHR activities, right? What helped you to become engaged as an educator? Yes. Honestly, there were a lot of benefits. Even though I started when I was at university, I still learned a lot of stuff that I didn`t know before. At first I didn’t care so much about some of the issues, I just thought they were interesting and it would probably be useful to know more. But when I started being a part of a group, it was about gender equality and other SRHR issues, and it was good to learn more about something that you need in your life.    * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Elionita Rexhepaj and Elsa Rexhepaj, members of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 15 October 2022

"The internet can sometimes be an obstacle to health and wellbeing. We need doctors to give us the right information."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Tarin Husic is a 21-year-old student from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Tarin, describe your experience of access to SRHR* education, information and care before and during COVID. Before COVID I was in high school where we had a few different education sessions and lectures about this topic. As we were not that familiar with a lot of things regarding SRHR, that was the time we should have been learning about it. After the pandemic started, life turned upside down and everything strived to be held online. During COVID, I had some problems relating to SRHR, so I wanted to inform myself more and more. One of the ways was to surf the internet and find all the necessary information. Doctors were better options, as we can take them more seriously. They would always draw my attention to SRHR-related issues, and in that way, I was able to gain knowledge and more information.   Did anything change for the better for you during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? During the pandemic, I had a lot of time to think about things like SRHR and to pay more attention to my health in general. The internet was full of different information, including SRHR. I think that education, especially after the peak of the pandemic, should be taken more seriously, since there is a chance that people will pay much more attention to their health and how to improve it, or how to protect themselves, after surviving all those moments of isolation and restrictions.   What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   Honestly, the internet sometimes can be an obstacle. You always find the harshest facts and information, besides what is useful. As you read all those things, your thoughts become more negative, and you start thinking in the wrong direction. Doctors' role is to give us the right information - otherwise we get carried away. We need them to be available and able to explain things, as well as drawing our attention to what is most important.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? I think the best way is to talk to young people and to see in which direction they are thinking, to try changing their perspectives to be as positive as possible. Young people are very often afraid to freely express themselves about something they need or about anything that is in their thoughts, and that should be taken into consideration. Sometimes they need to be given space to relax and talk about SRHR openly, since it is not yet a common topic in our surroundings.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? I think that workshops, projects, and educational programs could be very useful to raise young people’s the awareness, knowledge and skills, since this topic tends to be avoided at our age. It would be important to try and organize some kind of education or just workshops that would keep young people interested. Then the topic would become less taboo and people would talk more openly about it, because in our country not many people have developed a culture of talking about topics like SRHR.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Ajla-Ena Burnazovic, a member of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 25 October 2022

"The internet can sometimes be an obstacle to health and wellbeing. We need doctors to give us the right information."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Tarin Husic is a 21-year-old student from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Tarin, describe your experience of access to SRHR* education, information and care before and during COVID. Before COVID I was in high school where we had a few different education sessions and lectures about this topic. As we were not that familiar with a lot of things regarding SRHR, that was the time we should have been learning about it. After the pandemic started, life turned upside down and everything strived to be held online. During COVID, I had some problems relating to SRHR, so I wanted to inform myself more and more. One of the ways was to surf the internet and find all the necessary information. Doctors were better options, as we can take them more seriously. They would always draw my attention to SRHR-related issues, and in that way, I was able to gain knowledge and more information.   Did anything change for the better for you during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? During the pandemic, I had a lot of time to think about things like SRHR and to pay more attention to my health in general. The internet was full of different information, including SRHR. I think that education, especially after the peak of the pandemic, should be taken more seriously, since there is a chance that people will pay much more attention to their health and how to improve it, or how to protect themselves, after surviving all those moments of isolation and restrictions.   What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   Honestly, the internet sometimes can be an obstacle. You always find the harshest facts and information, besides what is useful. As you read all those things, your thoughts become more negative, and you start thinking in the wrong direction. Doctors' role is to give us the right information - otherwise we get carried away. We need them to be available and able to explain things, as well as drawing our attention to what is most important.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? I think the best way is to talk to young people and to see in which direction they are thinking, to try changing their perspectives to be as positive as possible. Young people are very often afraid to freely express themselves about something they need or about anything that is in their thoughts, and that should be taken into consideration. Sometimes they need to be given space to relax and talk about SRHR openly, since it is not yet a common topic in our surroundings.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? I think that workshops, projects, and educational programs could be very useful to raise young people’s the awareness, knowledge and skills, since this topic tends to be avoided at our age. It would be important to try and organize some kind of education or just workshops that would keep young people interested. Then the topic would become less taboo and people would talk more openly about it, because in our country not many people have developed a culture of talking about topics like SRHR.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Ajla-Ena Burnazovic, a member of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 13 October 2022

"Care providers need more training so that they have the knowledge to answer young people's questions."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  This 23-year-old LGBTIQ man from Bosnia and Herzegovina is a medical worker and an activist for youth SRHR*. As a volunteer peer educator, he supports other young people to learn and develop crucial life skills relating to their sexual and reproductive health.   Describe your experience of access to SRHR education, information and care before and during COVID. Before COVID, I received information through some NGOs and if I went directly to the doctor. Very little was said about these topics in our country and information was only visible if I searched for it myself. Then during the pandemic everything moved to the internet and a lot of information started to be shared on social networks.   Did anything change for the better for you during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? The pandemic has helped a lot in terms of better content and more accurate information on the internet. A new trend has been born, where influencers started to create content and dedicate their profiles to these topics. Thanks to the excellent response, this trend continued even after COVID and became part of everyday life. We forgot how to do things in person, so we left a lot of it to online platforms. I think that no matter how many shortcomings there are, it is very good because of the availability of information to everyone.   What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have improved this?   Unfortunately, during the pandemic, SRHR was not always in focus because of the “war” response to the virus. The high death rate and people’s fear of COVID meant that there was not much focus on the topic, and little media attention. People sadly still don’t understand the importance of SRHR. What could have changed is that doctors and politicians should have spoken more publicly about this topic and raised people’s awareness, but unfortunately they didn't do that.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? A very important lesson they should have learned is that they were not taking the right approach towards young people. If we have interesting and educational content, peer educators and youth leaders can easily reach them. It’s important to talk about taboo topics that every young person faces. We can only achieve change by changing the approach and understanding their needs.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? I recommend that more workshops be held to provide information to health workers and people who work directly with young people so that they can provide answers to their questions. Care and support providers are often prevented from providing young people with accurate information because they themselves learn and receive information in an old-fashioned way. Lack of knowledge is the key to the problem.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Azra Mehmedovic, a member of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 25 October 2022

"Care providers need more training so that they have the knowledge to answer young people's questions."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  This 23-year-old LGBTIQ man from Bosnia and Herzegovina is a medical worker and an activist for youth SRHR*. As a volunteer peer educator, he supports other young people to learn and develop crucial life skills relating to their sexual and reproductive health.   Describe your experience of access to SRHR education, information and care before and during COVID. Before COVID, I received information through some NGOs and if I went directly to the doctor. Very little was said about these topics in our country and information was only visible if I searched for it myself. Then during the pandemic everything moved to the internet and a lot of information started to be shared on social networks.   Did anything change for the better for you during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? The pandemic has helped a lot in terms of better content and more accurate information on the internet. A new trend has been born, where influencers started to create content and dedicate their profiles to these topics. Thanks to the excellent response, this trend continued even after COVID and became part of everyday life. We forgot how to do things in person, so we left a lot of it to online platforms. I think that no matter how many shortcomings there are, it is very good because of the availability of information to everyone.   What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have improved this?   Unfortunately, during the pandemic, SRHR was not always in focus because of the “war” response to the virus. The high death rate and people’s fear of COVID meant that there was not much focus on the topic, and little media attention. People sadly still don’t understand the importance of SRHR. What could have changed is that doctors and politicians should have spoken more publicly about this topic and raised people’s awareness, but unfortunately they didn't do that.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? A very important lesson they should have learned is that they were not taking the right approach towards young people. If we have interesting and educational content, peer educators and youth leaders can easily reach them. It’s important to talk about taboo topics that every young person faces. We can only achieve change by changing the approach and understanding their needs.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? I recommend that more workshops be held to provide information to health workers and people who work directly with young people so that they can provide answers to their questions. Care and support providers are often prevented from providing young people with accurate information because they themselves learn and receive information in an old-fashioned way. Lack of knowledge is the key to the problem.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Azra Mehmedovic, a member of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of group of young people
story

| 13 October 2022

"I have managed to help people feel happier with themselves and in their bodies."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Lana is a 17-year-old from Bosnia and Herzegovina who works as a volunteer peer educator, supporting other young people to develop crucial life skills relating to SRHR*.   Lana, describe your experience of access to SRHR education, information and care before and during COVID. In terms of overall SRHR education before and during COVID-19, I was very uneducated. At the beginning, I was 14 years old, so personally, I considered talking about SRHR topics very embarrassing and taboo. I was a kid and did not know that it is totally normal and important to talk about SRHR at that age. I live in a country where it is usually seen as “weird” to talk about SRHR, especially at my age at the time, so I felt like I shouldn’t participate in discussions on the topic. I was very uninformed and took minimal care of myself as regards SRHR, especially during COVID. It was a very hard time for everyone, and I was still finding myself, so it was really difficult for me to put priorities in the right place, especially with everything closed down; I had no access to any kind of SRHR education.   Did anything change for the better for you during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? How are things now? Sadly, nothing changed for the better during the pandemic. I was still just a kid and SRHR was a taboo topic for me and I was very uninformed. Luckily, after the pandemic, I started to realize that it’s totally normal and important to talk about sexual and reproductive health. Now I tend to help everyone who feels unsafe talking about it to realize that it is not taboo, as I used to think, and actually very important. I feel safe in my own body and I make sure I access education about SRHR as much as I need to. I make sure to take care of myself as regards to healthcare and I have been feeling a lot better, happier and safer since.   What was the biggest obstacle/challenge to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   My biggest challenge was overcoming the fact that SRHR is not seen as a normal topic to talk about and cover, especially for a 14 year old. Speaking to a professional, either a medical professional or my parents, would have helped a lot. I would have felt safer talking about the topic and would have realized from a young age that it is a totally normal topic to cover and is important for keeping myself healthy and happy.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? Listening. A lot of young people, including me, were afraid to open up. I lacked in-person communication and it has affected my SRHR education a lot. Personally, a heartfelt recommendation to professionals working with young people on this topic is to talk with them as much as they need to and as much as those young people feel the need to talk. I think it is very important for us to get heard and someone listening to our insecurities about talking over a specific topic would help youngsters open up and understand that it is not a taboo topic. COVID has made me realize that, if I have a question or a problem as regards to SRHR, I would want myself to be heard and for a professional to really listen to me and help me. I think it would help other young people a lot.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? What difference would this make in the life of a young person like you? Again, greater availability of professionals in health centres. It is very important for our voices and thoughts to be heard. It is a great way of helping us and making us understand that people really do listen to us and really do want to help us. It would help a lot, like it helped me.   What helped you to become engaged as a peer educator on SRHR? How has this experience been so far? I have been through a lot of things in life. I want to help people understand that it is okay if we all have our problems but I also want to help people lead their life in the right direction, overcoming those problems. I love helping people. I love seeing smiles on their faces after something that they thought might ruin their day and then overcoming it. It is the most beautiful thing ever. I want to educate people on various topics and help them understand that we, young people, are as much of a person as adults are. We have our own problems too. We also want to be heard. We also want to get educated on topics that are socially labelled as “inappropriate to youngsters”, but are as a matter of fact, just put that way by society and are totally normal to be addressed from teenage years. My experience as an educator has been wonderful. I had managed to help people open up, feel happier with themselves and in their bodies and realize that life is beautiful if you make it your own utopia. I love this hobby of mine and hope to continue it as long as I can.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by the Institute for Population and Development, IPPF's member in BiH, as part of the project  Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of group of young people
story

| 25 October 2022

"I have managed to help people feel happier with themselves and in their bodies."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Lana is a 17-year-old from Bosnia and Herzegovina who works as a volunteer peer educator, supporting other young people to develop crucial life skills relating to SRHR*.   Lana, describe your experience of access to SRHR education, information and care before and during COVID. In terms of overall SRHR education before and during COVID-19, I was very uneducated. At the beginning, I was 14 years old, so personally, I considered talking about SRHR topics very embarrassing and taboo. I was a kid and did not know that it is totally normal and important to talk about SRHR at that age. I live in a country where it is usually seen as “weird” to talk about SRHR, especially at my age at the time, so I felt like I shouldn’t participate in discussions on the topic. I was very uninformed and took minimal care of myself as regards SRHR, especially during COVID. It was a very hard time for everyone, and I was still finding myself, so it was really difficult for me to put priorities in the right place, especially with everything closed down; I had no access to any kind of SRHR education.   Did anything change for the better for you during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? How are things now? Sadly, nothing changed for the better during the pandemic. I was still just a kid and SRHR was a taboo topic for me and I was very uninformed. Luckily, after the pandemic, I started to realize that it’s totally normal and important to talk about sexual and reproductive health. Now I tend to help everyone who feels unsafe talking about it to realize that it is not taboo, as I used to think, and actually very important. I feel safe in my own body and I make sure I access education about SRHR as much as I need to. I make sure to take care of myself as regards to healthcare and I have been feeling a lot better, happier and safer since.   What was the biggest obstacle/challenge to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   My biggest challenge was overcoming the fact that SRHR is not seen as a normal topic to talk about and cover, especially for a 14 year old. Speaking to a professional, either a medical professional or my parents, would have helped a lot. I would have felt safer talking about the topic and would have realized from a young age that it is a totally normal topic to cover and is important for keeping myself healthy and happy.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? Listening. A lot of young people, including me, were afraid to open up. I lacked in-person communication and it has affected my SRHR education a lot. Personally, a heartfelt recommendation to professionals working with young people on this topic is to talk with them as much as they need to and as much as those young people feel the need to talk. I think it is very important for us to get heard and someone listening to our insecurities about talking over a specific topic would help youngsters open up and understand that it is not a taboo topic. COVID has made me realize that, if I have a question or a problem as regards to SRHR, I would want myself to be heard and for a professional to really listen to me and help me. I think it would help other young people a lot.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? What difference would this make in the life of a young person like you? Again, greater availability of professionals in health centres. It is very important for our voices and thoughts to be heard. It is a great way of helping us and making us understand that people really do listen to us and really do want to help us. It would help a lot, like it helped me.   What helped you to become engaged as a peer educator on SRHR? How has this experience been so far? I have been through a lot of things in life. I want to help people understand that it is okay if we all have our problems but I also want to help people lead their life in the right direction, overcoming those problems. I love helping people. I love seeing smiles on their faces after something that they thought might ruin their day and then overcoming it. It is the most beautiful thing ever. I want to educate people on various topics and help them understand that we, young people, are as much of a person as adults are. We have our own problems too. We also want to be heard. We also want to get educated on topics that are socially labelled as “inappropriate to youngsters”, but are as a matter of fact, just put that way by society and are totally normal to be addressed from teenage years. My experience as an educator has been wonderful. I had managed to help people open up, feel happier with themselves and in their bodies and realize that life is beautiful if you make it your own utopia. I love this hobby of mine and hope to continue it as long as I can.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by the Institute for Population and Development, IPPF's member in BiH, as part of the project  Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 13 October 2022

"It's so important in a crisis like COVID that nobody gets left behind."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Timur is a 17-year-old from Bosnia and Herzegovina who works as a volunteer peer educator, supporting other young people to develop crucial life skills relating to SRHR*.   Timur, describe your experience of access to SRHR education, information and care before and during COVID.  Before COVID, it was much easier to work on trainings and projects related to SRHR. Everything was done live and with the mutual interaction of participants and lecturers. Although we quickly adjusted during the pandemic, communication was difficult without live contact, but we successfully kept things going. As a peer educator and a young person, I had great access to information about SRHR. I knew who to turn to, but most other young people didn't. During COVID it was very difficult to find accurate information about SRHR.   Did anything change for the better during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? If so, has this continued since COVID is no longer an urgent crisis?  Yes, the pandemic has allowed us to get to know online tools better, and this enables us to process some topics in a much more interesting way. We have continued to use some methods we discovered in the first phase of COVID because we saw that they were easier but also better or more interesting for the participants themselves.    What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? The biggest challenge for peer educators was how to reach young people to provide information about SRHR. But even for me as a young person it was very difficult to find information and to reach professionals in health centres who deal with SRHR. The next challenge was that most of the NGOs in my vicinity closed their open centers and youth centers. Before the pandemic, young people could find all relevant information in these places. Now, most youth centres are open again, though some are working at reduced capacity.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? I think it's important that authorities and health professionals learn how important it is to have a ready response to crisis situations. And how important it is that in situations like this, they "leave no one behind". They should focus even more on health and ensure the availability of services for vulnerable groups. The next thing that governments and health professionals could learn is that online tools are very important and can be useful.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? What difference would this make in the life of a young person like you? I think it is important to introduce many more online platforms that offer answers to young people's questions. That way we have access to accurate information. It would make a difference because young people would use accurate information they got from qualified people via the internet, where they spend a lot of time today, and not the false information they find on portals, written by people who are not experts in these topics.   What helped you to become engaged as a peer educator and activist for SRHR? How has this experience been so far? It helped me to get more involved when I saw how much benefit and importance it has, both for me and for all those who participate. With small steps, we change the consciousness of society and educate people about topics that are present in their environment.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by the Institute for Population and Development, IPPF's member in BiH, as part of the project  Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers  

YVYC illustration of young people
story

| 25 October 2022

"It's so important in a crisis like COVID that nobody gets left behind."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Timur is a 17-year-old from Bosnia and Herzegovina who works as a volunteer peer educator, supporting other young people to develop crucial life skills relating to SRHR*.   Timur, describe your experience of access to SRHR education, information and care before and during COVID.  Before COVID, it was much easier to work on trainings and projects related to SRHR. Everything was done live and with the mutual interaction of participants and lecturers. Although we quickly adjusted during the pandemic, communication was difficult without live contact, but we successfully kept things going. As a peer educator and a young person, I had great access to information about SRHR. I knew who to turn to, but most other young people didn't. During COVID it was very difficult to find accurate information about SRHR.   Did anything change for the better during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? If so, has this continued since COVID is no longer an urgent crisis?  Yes, the pandemic has allowed us to get to know online tools better, and this enables us to process some topics in a much more interesting way. We have continued to use some methods we discovered in the first phase of COVID because we saw that they were easier but also better or more interesting for the participants themselves.    What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? The biggest challenge for peer educators was how to reach young people to provide information about SRHR. But even for me as a young person it was very difficult to find information and to reach professionals in health centres who deal with SRHR. The next challenge was that most of the NGOs in my vicinity closed their open centers and youth centers. Before the pandemic, young people could find all relevant information in these places. Now, most youth centres are open again, though some are working at reduced capacity.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis? I think it's important that authorities and health professionals learn how important it is to have a ready response to crisis situations. And how important it is that in situations like this, they "leave no one behind". They should focus even more on health and ensure the availability of services for vulnerable groups. The next thing that governments and health professionals could learn is that online tools are very important and can be useful.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? What difference would this make in the life of a young person like you? I think it is important to introduce many more online platforms that offer answers to young people's questions. That way we have access to accurate information. It would make a difference because young people would use accurate information they got from qualified people via the internet, where they spend a lot of time today, and not the false information they find on portals, written by people who are not experts in these topics.   What helped you to become engaged as a peer educator and activist for SRHR? How has this experience been so far? It helped me to get more involved when I saw how much benefit and importance it has, both for me and for all those who participate. With small steps, we change the consciousness of society and educate people about topics that are present in their environment.   * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by the Institute for Population and Development, IPPF's member in BiH, as part of the project  Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers  

YVYC illustration young people advocating
story

| 13 October 2022

"It would make a real difference if we could be open with health professionals about what really concerns us."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Alex is a 19-year-old LGBTIQ girl, studying at university in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. As a peer educator, she supports other young people to learn and develop crucial life skills relating to their sexual and reproductive health.   Alex, describe your experience of access to SRHR* education, information and care before and during COVID.  My access to sexual and reproductive healthcare before COVID was relatively normal, for example a gynaecologist visit, but during the pandemic, it was rather harder to go because I had to present a negative COVID test to be examined. At some point, in-person consultations with doctors were extremely limited, unless it was with reference to COVID or life-threatening - so regular check-ups were not really happening. I didn’t receive any adequate sexuality education either before or during the pandemic. The only time sexual health was discussed in my 12 years of schooling was back in elementary school and it only included only a talk with the girls on menstrual pads and periods. I believe online information became more accessible because of COVID. As a result of the limited consultations with professionals, more people sought answers on the Internet. Of course, we must keep in mind that information has to be checked carefully. Also, reliable information in Bulgarian is very limited.   Did anything change for the better during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? I suppose more information regarding SRHR became available online because of the huge demand. A good thing is that the information is still relevant today even though COVID is no longer an urgent crisis. Personally, I got into the habit of looking for answers myself and checking if the source was reliable or not. Other than that, I would not say that COVID had any positives.   What was the biggest challenge to young people’s SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   One of the biggest problems was the misleading and unreliable sources of information about sexual and reproductive health. In addition, adequate information is mostly in English. I believe a fact-checking system to verify all factual information could be helpful in preventing the spread of misinformation. I faced that problem when I and other 3 friends conducted a few educational workshops on the topic of comprehensive sexuality education. While putting together the information we needed, we came across numerous invalid data and false statements.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis?   From what I have seen, many adults do not seem to understand the burden this crisis has had on us and therefore neglect our mental health. Affordable and regular psychologist appointments should be a priority. There is this stigma around mental health that you seek help only if you are “not normal”. That is completely false and puts our generation under pressure and makes us not take proper care of our well-being (which often includes going to a psychologist). Also, many of the professionals (both teachers and medical practitioners) were sharing their personal and controversial opinion on the pandemic and vaccinations which has to be limited. A personal experience I had was when I went to get vaccinated and my GP would not allow me to, saying that it was unnecessary and even “dangerous”.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? What difference would this make in the life of a young person like you? More young and inclusive professionals working in the sphere are needed. For example, many of my female peers insist that female gynecologists examine them. LGBT+ inclusivity is also important, as currently many of us cannot share a key part of our life neither with a gynecologist nor a psychologist. The difference would be that we will be more open and share what really concerns us so we can seek adequate help. It is much easier to talk to someone close to your age or background.   What helped you to become engaged as an activist? How has this experience been so far? The idea that I can do something about the desperate need for a change and make my voice heard was what helped me get involved. So far, I mostly enjoy working with other young people and seeing them as determined and hopeful as I am. Every new idea has been welcomed with enthusiasm and encouragement by many of my peers, which makes it clear that youngsters are looking forward to a change and improvement. However, as I mentioned, we held several workshops about comprehensive sexuality education and we faced many obstacles. The project was very scarcely funded, which made it very hard to implement properly and exactly how we have envisioned it. Also, finding people to attend the workshops was fairly hard as well and we could not get any support from our teachers and school staff. They did not welcome the idea because the topics of sexual health and LGBT+ inclusivity are still taboo in our society - so they were scared of how the parents would react. On the other hand, the people that came to the workshops had very encouraging feedback and even a demand for more similar events. * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Viktoria Nikolova, a member of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

YVYC illustration young people advocating
story

| 25 October 2022

"It would make a real difference if we could be open with health professionals about what really concerns us."

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Alex is a 19-year-old LGBTIQ girl, studying at university in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. As a peer educator, she supports other young people to learn and develop crucial life skills relating to their sexual and reproductive health.   Alex, describe your experience of access to SRHR* education, information and care before and during COVID.  My access to sexual and reproductive healthcare before COVID was relatively normal, for example a gynaecologist visit, but during the pandemic, it was rather harder to go because I had to present a negative COVID test to be examined. At some point, in-person consultations with doctors were extremely limited, unless it was with reference to COVID or life-threatening - so regular check-ups were not really happening. I didn’t receive any adequate sexuality education either before or during the pandemic. The only time sexual health was discussed in my 12 years of schooling was back in elementary school and it only included only a talk with the girls on menstrual pads and periods. I believe online information became more accessible because of COVID. As a result of the limited consultations with professionals, more people sought answers on the Internet. Of course, we must keep in mind that information has to be checked carefully. Also, reliable information in Bulgarian is very limited.   Did anything change for the better during the pandemic in terms of access to SRHR? I suppose more information regarding SRHR became available online because of the huge demand. A good thing is that the information is still relevant today even though COVID is no longer an urgent crisis. Personally, I got into the habit of looking for answers myself and checking if the source was reliable or not. Other than that, I would not say that COVID had any positives.   What was the biggest challenge to young people’s SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   One of the biggest problems was the misleading and unreliable sources of information about sexual and reproductive health. In addition, adequate information is mostly in English. I believe a fact-checking system to verify all factual information could be helpful in preventing the spread of misinformation. I faced that problem when I and other 3 friends conducted a few educational workshops on the topic of comprehensive sexuality education. While putting together the information we needed, we came across numerous invalid data and false statements.   What lessons should governments and professionals who work with youth learn from the pandemic about how to look after young people’s health and wellbeing in a crisis?   From what I have seen, many adults do not seem to understand the burden this crisis has had on us and therefore neglect our mental health. Affordable and regular psychologist appointments should be a priority. There is this stigma around mental health that you seek help only if you are “not normal”. That is completely false and puts our generation under pressure and makes us not take proper care of our well-being (which often includes going to a psychologist). Also, many of the professionals (both teachers and medical practitioners) were sharing their personal and controversial opinion on the pandemic and vaccinations which has to be limited. A personal experience I had was when I went to get vaccinated and my GP would not allow me to, saying that it was unnecessary and even “dangerous”.   What is your number 1 recommendation on what is needed to make services more youth-friendly? What difference would this make in the life of a young person like you? More young and inclusive professionals working in the sphere are needed. For example, many of my female peers insist that female gynecologists examine them. LGBT+ inclusivity is also important, as currently many of us cannot share a key part of our life neither with a gynecologist nor a psychologist. The difference would be that we will be more open and share what really concerns us so we can seek adequate help. It is much easier to talk to someone close to your age or background.   What helped you to become engaged as an activist? How has this experience been so far? The idea that I can do something about the desperate need for a change and make my voice heard was what helped me get involved. So far, I mostly enjoy working with other young people and seeing them as determined and hopeful as I am. Every new idea has been welcomed with enthusiasm and encouragement by many of my peers, which makes it clear that youngsters are looking forward to a change and improvement. However, as I mentioned, we held several workshops about comprehensive sexuality education and we faced many obstacles. The project was very scarcely funded, which made it very hard to implement properly and exactly how we have envisioned it. Also, finding people to attend the workshops was fairly hard as well and we could not get any support from our teachers and school staff. They did not welcome the idea because the topics of sexual health and LGBT+ inclusivity are still taboo in our society - so they were scared of how the parents would react. On the other hand, the people that came to the workshops had very encouraging feedback and even a demand for more similar events. * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Viktoria Nikolova, a member of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers