UNFPA was grateful to be part of the visit for Baroness Lindsay Northover, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development, UK. The Baroness visited one of our partners, loveLife and the call centre on 25 November, 2014. The purpose of the visit was to provide an overview of loveLife's programme in South Africa, as well as to conduct a field visit to the National Call centre.
loveLife is a vibrant youth organization, promoting a healthy, HIV-free way of life among South African teenagers by linking HIV and GBV prevention with youth development in a nationwide community-level peer education approach and a national multimedia campaigns.
Present at the visit, UNFPA Deputy Representative Navchaa Suren introduced the loveLife - UNFPA partnership. With funding from the UK Department of International Development (DFID) UNFPA, in partnership UNICEF and Save the Children South Africa launched, in 2012, the joint programme on "A Safer South Africa for Women and Children: Improved Security and Justice for Women, Girls and Boys".
The programme is designed to create a protective environment that will strengthen national prevention mechanisms to reduce violence against women and children.
This is being achieved through a primary focus on prevention of violence and secondary focus on improving access to existing response services by communities.
lovelife, one of our implementing partners, mostly focus on reaching young people through community-based GBV prevention outreach campaigns which are facilitated by groundBreakers and Mpintshi in the Youth-Centres.
Grace Matlhape, loveLife CEO, provided a background on loveLife programme in South Africa and conducted the visit to the National Call Centre. The National Call aims to promote open discussion around sex and sexuality among adolescents and parents, increase the uptake of adolescent and youth friendly health services and link young people to loveLife programmes.
The Baroness had a chance to engage with call centre operatives, discussing with them on their experience at the call centre.
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