Resilient & Empowered Adolescent & Young People – Ready++ (2018 – 2019)

To build the capacity of adolescents and youth affected by HIV by enhancing their knowledge and skills on sexual and reproductive health, gender and sexuality, positive living and mental health.   Ready++ was a short pilot project that was embedded to our existing Vihaan Care and Support programme and implemented in five states covering 20 districts of Manipur, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Delhi.   Adolescents constitute 22% of India’s total population and there are 0.27 million adolescent and young people living with HIV registered in our Vihaan programme (source: Vihaan CMIS). An analysis of HIV counselling data under the national programme for 2016 indicated that 24% of all newly detected HIV infections were among young people in the age group of 15-24 years (National strategic plan document NACO). Adolescents of all ages and gender including sexual minority need to have comprehensive knowledge on their sexual health rights and responsibilities. This will empower them to lead a healthy and dignified life and enable them to deal with difficult circumstances.    Within a short period, the pilot project achieved more than the set deliverables and demonstrated that the youth were willing to take control of things concerning their health and catalyse change among their peers. The project conducted state-level trainings and identified peer champions in each district who in turn disseminated the crucial knowledge through one to one, group meetings and WhatsApp groups. The project trained 145 adolescents and youth, identified 20 peer champions among them who together reached out to nearly 1300 adolescents and youth in the five states.  To build the capacity of adolescents and youth affected by HIV by enhancing their knowledge and skills on sexual and reproductive health, gender and sexuality, positive living and mental health.   Ready++ was a short pilot project that was embedded to our existing Vihaan Care and Support programme and implemented in five states covering 20 districts of Manipur, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Delhi.   Adolescents constitute 22% of India’s total population and there are 0.27 million adolescent and young people living with HIV registered in our Vihaan programme (source: Vihaan CMIS). An analysis of HIV counselling data under the national programme for 2016 indicated that 24% of all newly detected HIV infections were among young people in the age group of 15-24 years (National strategic plan document NACO). Adolescents of all ages and gender including sexual minority need to have comprehensive knowledge on their sexual health rights and responsibilities. This will empower them to lead a healthy and dignified life and enable them to deal with difficult circumstances.    Within a short period, the pilot project achieved more than the set deliverables and demonstrated that the youth were willing to take control of things concerning their health and catalyse change among their peers. The project conducted state-level trainings and identified peer champions in each district who in turn disseminated the crucial knowledge through one to one, group meetings and WhatsApp groups. The project trained 145 adolescents and youth, identified 20 peer champions among them who together reached out to nearly 1300 adolescents and youth in the five states.