Today we started with the first day of the 2^nd Youth Refresher Institute for Safe Advocacy; it is indeed a wonderful experience to reunite with our youth champions of 2013 and learn about all the wonderful work they have been doing. Just to refresh our memories, ASAP held its 2^nd Youth Advocacy Institute in 2013 https://asap-asia.org/blog/youth-advocacy-institute-2013-notes-from-day-one/  ; some of the participants were awardees of small grants from us and went on to conduct their own projects, the others engaged with advocacy work on safe abortion in their own capacities. On the first day of the refresher institute we started with sharing from the Youth Champions about their work and here is what we learned.

Yu Yang, China: Yu Yang is a peer educator and member of the Chinese Youth Network. He shared with us news about the project undertaken by Tang Tan. The objective of that was to provide more accurate information on safe abortion, contraception and sexual health issues to help young migrant workers and students.  Yu Yang was also featured in our project of the month read here https://asap-asia.org/blog/youth-project-of-the-month-what-do-young-peer-educators-know-about-safe-abortion-in-china/

Rola Yasmine, Lebanon: Rola is a nurse and works with the feminist collective Nasawiya. Being one of the small grant awardees Rola has set up the A Project which is about seeking agency, alternatives and autonomy in sexuality, sexual health, and gender. The project aims to work on sexuality, while looking at but not limiting the discussion to disease-prevention and violence, but also through an affirmative and sex-positive approach. She also plans to start a hotline for women to access information on dealing with an unwanted pregnancy and other issues related to sexuality.

Sarah Jane Biton, Philippines:  Sarah walked us through her project with her presentation “The value of women’s lives through the lens of Philipino society”; through her talent of photography and film making Sarah has been contributing to the abortion battle. She is also one of the small grant awardees and has utilized the grant to come up with some excellent films on the situation with unsafe abortions in her country and the attitude of the healthcare providers which leads to more stigma and ill health. Watch them here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juPFcSR0XXY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2jI0C_wz3s&feature=youtu.be

 Smriti Thapa, Nepal: Smriti is a nurse and working actively on the safe abortion advocacy. She made an inspiring presentation on her journey as a Youth Champion; she has actively been contributing to the ASAP blog https://asap-asia.org/blog/being-pro-choice-journey-of-youth-champion/ . Smriti didn’t receive a financial grant but through her efforts she has continuously strived to advocate for safe abortion with limited resources through organizing workshops with young nurses and engaging in grass root level advocacy, including for 28^th Sept and the International Campaign for Women’s Rights !

Shweta Krishnan, India: Shweta is currently a research associate at IIT Chennai and also one of the small grant recipients. She created the animated film “From unwantedpregnancy to safe abortion” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wouIaen2J8 for training and advocacy. She is currently engaged in a research on “Political Mapping: Safe Abortion and Sex Selection”   The objective is to map the politics of the key stakeholders of the anti sex selection campaign and understand the underpinnings of the anti-abortion sentiment echoed in the campaign’s messaging.

Sarah Natali Soysa, Sri Lanka: Sarah has been working actively and advocating on safe abortion through various platforms. Currently pursuing her masters in Melbourne, Sarah is advocating for safe abortion rights of migrant students in Melbourne https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4awnqQSIHFA . Sarah is also a small grant awardee and has produced a documentary that talks about the issue of safe abortion in Sri Lanka and the lack of information and stigma around it. The film was recently screened at the Beijing +20 film festival in Bangkok and was highly appreciated https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJfJlyYPxeU

After lunch we had a very interesting session on the mentoring process that talked about challenges, lessons learnt and future steps. The session was facilitated by Dr. Suchitra Dalvie and Shweta.

Last session saw a very enriching and intensive discussion with Dr. Ravi Duggal from the International Budget Partnership (IBP) on ‘Political Economy context of SRHR and Safe Abortion’; Through his presentation helped the participants to understand the influence of sustainability discourse on reproductive rights and understand the economic impact of unsafe abortion. The session saw some very insightful debates on gender responsive budgeting and health.

This was a snapshot of the proceedings of Day 1 more interesting updates to follow soon. Stay Tuned!