Entre Nous Jeunes

The project involves mobilising peer educators to lead discussions and conduct informal interviews with fellow youth on topics related to family planning (FP) and STIs/AIDS. It also distributes educational material and sells condoms to youth.

Specifically, Entre Nous Jeunes relies on large numbers of existing, community-based, youth service clubs and youth associations (sports and religious). The programme organisers recruit youth to be volunteer peer educators and test them for motivation and commitment. Those who are selected receive training, lasting one week, in facilitating group discussions as well as in reproductive anatomy, abstinence, contraceptive methods, and skills to negotiate condom use. Every 3 months, peer educators receive additional training to reinforce their skills and knowledge and to resolve outstanding problems or concerns.

Peer educators work within their own community to educate their peers and to refer them, when necessary, to reproductive and sexual health care. Peer educators arrange discussion groups and meet with their peers in health and sports association gatherings, and one-on-one. They also distribute information, education, and communication (IEC) materials including calendars, comic strips with information about contraception and sexual health, and posters. Peer educators receive reimbursement for travel expenses as well as promotional materials, including tee shirts, shorts, baseball caps, bags, and calendars.

Sexual and Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS, Youth.

Entre Nous Jeunes is part of a research project that aims to assess the needs of Cameroonian youth in terms of prevention of early and unwanted pregnancies and STI/AIDS. Evaluators undertook efforts to determine, before and after the intervention, the level of knowledge and practice of methods for preventing unwanted pregnancies and STI/AIDS so as to assess the efficiency of the "peer education" approach. This process also involved identifying constraints to the use by youth of contraceptive methods in general and condoms in particular.