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Youth Empowerment Project

Year of Implementation: 2021

Background

Human capital development depends on adolescents growing into healthy, informed, and resilient adults.
In Ghana, challenges such as adolescent pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, substance abuse, and gender-based violence continue to threaten young people’s well being and educational outcomes, often fueled by misinformation and peer pressure.

To respond to these challenges, Savana Signatures with funding from UNESCO has been implementing the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) to provide adolescents in schools with accurate, age-appropriate, and rights-based Reproductive Health Education (RHE). The project aimed to strengthen young people’s knowledge, confidence, and decision-making skills to support healthier life choices and positive development.

Strategy​

The initiative employed a three-tiered approach:

  1. Direct Student Engagement: Delivered structured RHE sessions covering self-esteem, values clarification, and health protection in 178 junior high schools and 8 senior high schools
  2. Capacity Building: Trained 86 teachers (47 male, 39 female) and 48 district education officials to sustain the program
  3. Innovative Outreach: Used the YOLO drama series as a discussion catalyst for sensitive topics like HIV prevention and substance abuse

Key Highlights

  1. Reached 41,364 students (20,224 boys, 21,140 girls) with comprehensive RHE
  2. Established peer education networks through cascading trainings for 484 participants
  3. Engaged 9,941 SHS students (5,477 female, 4,464 male) in critical health discussions
  4. Developed institutional capacity through:
    • Teacher training programs
    • District official workshops on Safe School implementation
    • Youth advocate leadership development
  5. Created safe spaces for discussing sensitive health topics through multimedia tools

The program successfully combined formal education systems with youth-friendly approaches to deliver lasting reproductive health knowledge while building sustainable institutional support structures.