31/07/2025
Empowering Youth-Friendly Health Services!
From 22nd to 24th July 2025, Gold Star Kenya, in partnership with Tiko, successfully conducted a transformative Youth Friendly Services Training Program aimed at strengthening the capacity of healthcare providers to better serve adolescents and young people. The three-day training planned by the Senior Programs Officer, Lilian Wambua, was designed to equip participants with knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to deliver youth-centered, non-judgmental and rights-based health services that improve access, acceptability and utilization by young people.
On Day 1 (22nd July), the training was officially opened by the Executive Director at Gold Star Kenya, Dr. Vernon Mochache. This was followed by participant introductions and an engaging session focused on understanding youth development stages, their unique needs and the importance of recognizing diversity. Participants reflected on their personal values and how these may impact service delivery, analyzed real-world youth-provider interactions, practiced empathetic responses in youth consultations and discussed how to identify and shift harmful provider attitudes to more supportive ones. This laid the foundation for building provider competency in delivering adolescent and youth-friendly health services.
Day 2 (23rd July) explored the structural and policy-related aspects of youth sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Participants were introduced to the legal and policy framework guiding youth SRHR in Kenya, WHO standards and Ministry of Health (MOH) guidelines. Discussions included provider characteristics that either attract or push away young clients, key barriers youth face when accessing health services and practical ways to adapt health facilities to be more welcoming and inclusive. These conversations helped foster a non-judgmental, rights-based approach to youth care among providers.
The final session on Day 3 (24th July) focused on clinical and psychosocial aspects of youth care. Participants were taken through an overview of method mixing, effective counseling techniques, risk reduction strategies, self-testing and PrEP. Additional sessions covered peer models for youth engagement, emerging youth mental health trends, supportive communication strategies, screening, first-line support, referral pathways and tips on youth-friendly triage and basic first aid. The training concluded with a certificate award ceremony to recognize the commitment and participation of all attendees.
We are proud to have empowered providers with tools and perspectives that will enable them to offer responsive, compassionate and youth-friendly services. Together with our partners at Tiko, we continue to champion quality healthcare for young people in Kenya.
