This blog was originaly published in the blog, Being Smriti and written with contributions from ASAP Youth Champion Shila Sharma.

As the vivid memories of the 2nd Youth Advocacy Institute on Safe Abortion Practices  were so  fresh, Shila and I were again  blessed with this wonderful opportunity to share our  amazing experiences back home  in the 1st National Midwifery  Conference in Nepal organized by Midwifery Society of Nepal (MIDSON) whose theme was “Midwifery Education: Policy into Action, Saving Lives of the Women and Newborns.”

The conference was held from 14th -15th September in Shankar Hotel, Kathmandu. More than 250 midwives including doctors, health professionals, academicians, foreign delegates, policy makers and current leaders were present in this conference. The main highlights of the conference were interesting plenary and scientific sessions focusing on the theme of the conference. On the 1st plenary session of the 2nd day we Youth Champions presented our experience of 2nd Youth Advocacy Institute. The session was chaired by the Dr Kerstin Erlandsson, Midwife specialist from UNFPA.

Our presentation highlighted the objectives of The ASAP Youth Advocacy Institute which encompasses  the growing need for young champions to take on the role for advocacy especially for the most challenging issues like right to access safe abortion services. We also mentioned our selection process and how we got scholarship to this enriching advocacy institute for safe abortion practice. We briefly explained our achievements, in other word,  highlights of our enriching sessions with the veterans were shared among the participants of the conference. We explained about gaining the opportunity of deeply engaging with issues of sexual and reproductive rights especially from gender and human rights perspective, and on topics such as abortion laws in Asia, what does it mean to be prochoice? how social media can be used for advocacy? and how as youth activist we can create or extend our network for better advocacy.

We also explained how ASAP intends to mentor us in future and how we were proud to be the part of Youth Champion Alumni. Our action plan was also shared and our commitment was reiterated. We acknowledged the support and guidance of the President of our organization MIDSON, Kiran Bajrachharya as well as the entire team of ASAP for their role as mentors and their future commitment for continuous  support and guidance.

We received  immediate feedback from the dignitaries and the participants. They reckoned that the involvement of youths in issues like advocacy on safe abortion practice can really make a difference. We were felicitated for our effort and future commitment for  advocacy for safe abortion practice. Networking was done with the foreign as well as local participants who were interested and working in issues of safe abortion practice. Overall the entire experience was something to cherish forever and much of this credit goes to the MIDSON as well as ASAP for promoting youth leadership.

 This blog was originaly published in the blog, Being Smriti and written with contributions from ASAP Youth Champion Shila Sharma.