They say seven is a magic number! And we have in this post seven exciting projects that were done this year by the ASAP Youth Champions.

Some have worked across Asia on several projects through ASAP’s Small Grants Programme. And others have championed social media and offline advocacy campaigns. Not only have these efforts made the issues around abortion more visible, they have also helped us improve our understanding of abortion rights in the concerned Asian countries. 

China: Youth Champion Yu Yang conducted three capacity building workshops for peer educators in collaboration with the China Youth Network. Each workshop had about 25 attendees from various provinces around China. A survey was conducted among the participants to assess their understanding of safe abortion, as well as their understanding of the need for safe abortion. The findings of this survey will be used to make recommendations for changes in the current peer education manual. This manual is distributed among 2500 to 3000 peer educators in China.

India: Youth Champion Preet Manjusha conducted a rapid quantitative study among 20 medical practitioners in the Indian State of Maharashtra in order to understand how the issue of sex-separation affects access to safe abortion and to separate sex-selection from safe abortion.

Lebanon: Youth Champion Rola Yasmine plans to run a sexuality and reproductive health hotline that will provide accurate information on medical abortion to women who may need these services. As part of her project, she has designed a website with comprehensive information about gender, sexuality and reproductive health for women. This website will be available in English and in Arabic with additional material in the language of immigrant migrant workers in Lebanon.

Sri Lanka: Youth Champion Dakshitha Wickremeratne conducted a study among 1000 undergraduate student across 20 Sri Lankan universities to assess the knowledge and attitude of young men and women to safe abortion, and to the inclusion of a liberal policy on safe abortion in the upcoming Youth Policy Review in Sri Lanka.

Social Media Campaigns:

Nepal: Youth Champion Shreejana Bhajracharya has started a blog on the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of young people in Nepal. Read Kumari: a Feminist for a comprehensive discussions and constant updates on the young activist’s views from Nepal.

Sri Lanka: Youth Champion Sarah Soysa started a new photo campaign called It’s Her Right. The campaign was launched on Sept. 28, 2013, but will continue well beyond. These are some of the pictures they have received so far. The campaign has also received contributions from Nepal.

Offline Campaigns:

Campaigns For Sept 28: Youth Champions Shreejana Bhajracharya, Prabina Sujaku, Laxmi Prabha Shresta and Smriti Thapa conducted various events, including radio shows and advocacy workshops for Sept. 28. They also held two flash mobs, one in Kathmandu and one in Bhaktapur.