On 5th August 2021, UYAHF in partnership with the Moroto District health office organized a one-day coordination meeting and smart advocacy capacity building training for mapped youth-led and youth-serving organizations in Moroto district.

The training among others, aimed at building capacities of the youth leaders in SMART advocacy and accountability, research and evidence generation, communication, documentation, and coordination; as well as creating an opportunity for learning and sharing among the mapped youth-led and youth-serving organizations.

During the training, UYAHF Officers Nakkazi Joan and Nakato Joyce oriented participants on UYAHF mandate; youth challenging barriers and biases to SRHR, and then built their capacity on SMART advocacy.

The one-day meeting and training attracted 18 participants including CSO, Youth-led and youth-serving organizations and it was graced by the Moroto district D.H.O and the Biostatistician.

The participants included nine males and nine females. 14 of the 17 were young people between the age of 20-35 while 3 were adults between the age of 36-65 years.

After the session, the excited participants rated SMART advocacy as a good approach to enhance their abilities to support advocacy for many young people-related issues in Moroto.

Following the training, participants reported to have gained confidence in SMART advocacy with 9 mentioning they were confident to set SMART goals and objectives; 3 stated techniques of SMART advocacy and campaigning, 4 stated reasons for SMART advocacy and how to ensure SMART goal and objectives while one said it was a new concept which is liked and will embrace to build confidence with time.

The Participants further committed to using the knowledge and skills gained in their communities to advocate against SRHR related challenges including essential and life-saving SRHR services like preventing unsafe abortions and post-abortion care, existing harmful cultural practices such as FGM and the consistent high teenage pregnancies that have been caused by cultural believes, parental negligence and COVID-19 lockdown.