Week 4 of Celebrating Young Changemakers from the Global South

We are in the wind-down stages of our #HCDX31DaysOfAppreciation campaign! This week we highlight 7 more young people who have inspired us with their commitment to social impact, empowerment and advocacy for better sexual and reproductive health outcomes for young people in underrepresented regions. We will continue to celebrate more young people leading the change on our Twitter, Threads and Instagram channels through August 31. Be sure to keep up with us as we wrap up our month-long campaign of saying THANK YOU to the young people in our circles!

19/31 Meru Vashisht

Meru is an SRHR Design Lead at @IRCKenya where she works with research and country program teams to reduce barriers and fears for women and girls seeking sexual, reproductive, maternal, and newborn health services in refugee and conflict-affected settings. She was also a member of the HCDExchange Quality and Standards Working Group which helped deliver the ASRH Quality and Standards Framework.

In 2021, Meru’s innovative solution ‘Unspoken’, a platform that seeks to address the unspoken sexual and reproductive health fears girls face, won the YTH Innovation Challenge. She continues to channel her writing prowess into performance poetry as a medium to spark conversations on emotions, perspectives, and social impact movement through her platform the vivacious poet. Meru is motivated to help women and girls feel less powerless and more in control of their lives.

20/31 Pauline Nzuki (MPH)

Pauline is an agile programmer who supports girl-centered contraceptive programs focused on increasing the uptake of sexual and reproductive health services among adolescents and youth. She has supported the ground-breaking and the expansion of a girl-centered contraceptive program, which yielded a remarkable increase in the uptake of SRHR services among adolescent girls. She has also used human-centered design and other user-centric approaches to facilitate initiative, and training aimed at fostering community resilience.

Given her experience supporting innovative SRHR initiatives that have scaled successfully, we asked Pauline about tips to navigate stakeholder dynamics in SRHR expansion. She said, “employ active communication, collaborate, and align objectives to ensure project success.”

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21/31 Rasheed David Mutaha

In the past 8 years, Rasheed has been engaged as a youth advocate on sexual and reproductive health and rights for adolescents and young people, girls and young women, and sexual and gender minorities. He has worked on numerous grassroots campaigns and national movements in Kenya and the larger global south region.

He is also the co-founder of Creatives Factory, a social enterprise using human-centered design approaches to incubate and accelerate social impact campaigns aimed at achieving better healthcare, education, and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people. He works with Development Dynamics as an Associate, Campaigns and Design

Strategist.

22/31 Fresew Getaneh

Fresew is a passionate youth and gender advocacy programmer with extensive experience in project management and coordination. She has been closely involved in the successful coordination of programs using Human-Centered Design and Adaptive Implementation approaches. She believes that every individual, regardless of their age, deserves equal opportunities, support, and a platform to express their ideas and concerns. Her dedication is grounded in the need to create inclusive spaces where young people can thrive, develop their skills, and contribute to their communities wholesomely. According to Fresew, the youth should always be at the center of driving positive change. She currently works at PSIEthiopia where she leads gender mainstreaming efforts.

23/31 Swarali Pandare

Swarali is one of our very own Youth Leadership Hub Design Associate. She is motivated by how #HCD teaches us to truly empathize with people who are in different circumstances from us. Swarali’s interest in people-centered design was piqued during her final year as a student Industrial Designer trainee. She was interested in exploring how human-centered design could create impact and drive advocacy for youth-focused SRHR. She is dedicated to making an impact at the grassroots level by learning about people and their inner lives. Swarali currently works at Futuristic Labs in India as a User Researcher.

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24/31 A. Romulus Amour GBOTA

Romulus is currently a logistician at Etrilabs-Benin and holds a degree in Applied Linguistics in the English language. He is a dedicated activist for sexual and reproductive rights, gender equality, and education. He is also a member of the Think Tank Jeunes du Partenariat de Ouagadougou, bringing with him 8 years of experience in social and behavioral change communication as well as Human-Centered Design (HCD). He is a member of the advisory board for HCDExchange in the Francophone Africa region and a trainer and consultant in social and behavioral change, advocacy, and HCD.

When asked what attracted him to the field of HCD/AYSRH, Romulus explained that "HCD holds genuine potential to have a significant impact on health, well-being, and the overall quality of our lives."

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25/31 Ipsa Agnani

Ipsa is currently enrolled in a Master of Public Administration program at the @London School of Economics (LSE). She has 3+ years of experience in #SRHR programming, design, research, communications, and advocacy. She has worked with both Indian and international organizations on issues relating to young people's SRHR such as meaningful youth engagement in abortion, comprehensive sexuality education, and gender-based violence prevention.

We were curious to know what motivates Ipsa. She said, “The knowledge that many issues in our lives are interconnected can be overwhelming because we may not know where or how to begin addressing them, but this same fact motivates me to always address policy challenges with a systems-thinking lens. I am committed to addressing long-term, institutional challenges through creativity and innovation- both of which young people can help foster.” Ipsa sits on the Coalition Steering Committee for the @Self Care Trailblazers group.

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We share the impressive work these young people are putting into championing and informing better health outcomes in their communities. And we say to them, we see you! Thank you for being the change you would like to see.?