THE FIRST ADOLESCENT HEALTH SYMPOSIUM.
On the 27th and 28th of November 2015,
the first adolescent health symposium was launched at Hilton Hotel, Nairobi.
The symposium would
address the evolving challenges in adolescent health: reflecting on the post
2015 sustainable development agenda and show case the efforts and contributions
of relevant stakeholders to the health and wellbeing of adolescents, and
provide a platform for sharing innovations and strategies towards improving
adolescent health. The symposium brought together Government of Kenya officials,
development partners, learning institutions, adolescent sexual and reproductive
health and rights/HIV experts, public and private practitioners, implementing
partners and other relevant organizations.
Adolescents, young people between the ages 10 and 19 years,
are often thought of as a healthy group. Nevertheless, many adolescents do die prematurely
due to accidents, suicide, violence, pregnancy-related complications and other
illnesses that are either preventable or treatable. Many more suffer chronic
ill-health and disability. In addition, many serious diseases in adulthood have
their roots in adolescence. For example, tobacco use, sexually transmitted
infections including HIV, poor eating and exercise habits, lead to illness or
premature death later in life.
‘’We invest so much in keeping children alive in their early
years of life, let us not lose them in the second phase . We run into this risk
by not paying sufficient attention to adolescents. ‘’
Let us prioritize the second decade
of life by addressing the challenges that adolescents face because, #EveryAdolescentCounts
, this was the hash tag used and the twitter handle @AHS2015Ke for a follow up
of this amazing event which we, as youthcaffe were honored to participate in.
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