Background
Empowering young people to make informed choices about their reproductive health is of immense importance for a country’s development. At Hawassa University in Ethiopia, all college campuses have their own health clinics. The clinic at the agricultural campus started offering reproductive health services, but the number of students using these services was very low. The clinic only offered condoms and pills as contraceptives, so students wishing to use other methods were referred to health facilities outside the university area. Because of this, unprotected sex has been common among the campus’ 1700 students, putting them at risk of unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS.

About the project
This project was created to improve contraceptive use by students in the Agriculture campus, at Hawassa University. The project team held awareness-raising sessions on contraception use for all students at the beginning of the university semester. The staff working at the clinic on the agriculture campus were also trained on how to provide youth-friendly reproductive health services for the students. Contraceptives and medical drugs were provided by the regional health bureau and the clinic was stocked with enough products to last throughout the project.

Results
By the end of the project, the number of students accessing the clinic’s contraceptive services increased. 47 students were given contraceptives over a three-month period, compared to 72 students in an entire year before the project. These numbers do not include students accessing condoms, as those cases were not registered. Two additional nurses were employed to meet the new demand and ensure that the students had 24-hour access to the clinic’s services. The clinic staff’s attitude also changed in a positive way after their training, which was expressed and appreciated by the students in the project evaluation.

Year: 2009