The Brilliant Lives Program will target adolescent youth and young adults to provide life skills, vocational opportunities, access to community resources and health care, and knowledge regarding sexual and reproductive health. Brilliant Lives will partner with government, communities, and civil society organizations to empower youth to be able to take charge of their own lives and make healthy decisions using internationally recognized evidence based interventions, including vocational programs, social networking and linkages, and information regarding child rights and healthcare. The goal of every Brilliant Lives project will be to give adolescents and young adults tools to empower them to have successful futures.
Since the HIV epidemic began in the 1980s, countries around the globe have made massive strides in preventing and treating this deadly disease. In Zambia, the overall prevalence rate has slowly been declining over the past decade.
However, incidence in adolescent girls and young women in the age bracket of 15 – 24 years has been steadily rising, and HIV/AIDS remains the leading cause of death in Eastern and Southern Africa in that demographic.
Data taken from Zambia’s most recent Demographic Health Survey (DHS) shows that knowledge of the syndrome alone is not enough to prevent new cases from occurring.
The DHS also indicates that as education and wealth increase, so does prevalence.
A number of international studies have shown that at risk populations need multiple layers of interventions to be effective in slowing the spread of HIV, meaning that community linkages to services is avital part of any service package. The international community and civil society organizations have an established presence in Zambia to ensure that at risk youth are receiving multi-layered interventions.
In a series of focus group discussions commissioned by USAID, adolescent girls and young women indicated that they participate in potentially harmful sexual activities due to peer pressure, transactional benefits on various levels, social pressure to marry and lack of condom negotiation skills. Additionally, many girls who are sexually active have more than one partner.
Vocational Training Centers
The Brilliant Lives Program seeks to address these challenges through community engagement and the building of social networks. Brilliant Lives shall partner with GRZ through key relationships at the Ministries of Health, Education, Community Development and Social Services, and the National AIDS Council along with local authorities, community leaders and headmen, and multiple civil society organizations to create centers for adolescent youth and young adults, particularly those who are preparing to finish primary school and make the transition into secondary school. The main focus of the centers will be on vocational training as well as job skills trainings. Professionals will be brought in to train youth in specific trades, as well as skills needed to function in the workplace.
Additionally, these centers will train and mentor youth through organizations either already at work in the community or organizations Brilliant Lives will bring into the community. Workers shall be in mentoring programs, life-skills courses, gender based violence problems and treatment, micro-enterprising, as well as healthy family programs. Youth who will take part in the center’s activities will have access to youth friendly health services including information about sexual and reproductive health and referrals to trained health care workers. They can also be trained as mentors and peer educators.
Brilliant Lives aims to work closely with the community and service providers to identify service and information gaps, and seek to build capacity to try and close those gaps. Where gaps may not be able to be filled at the center, Brilliant Lives shall go into schools and healthcare facilities to provide community trainings in comprehensive sexuality education and youth friendly service provision.
