Ashgabat, 8 July 2009 – Training of trainers in peer education techniques has been conducted from 02 to 27 June in five velayats of Turkmenistan by UNPFA and Youth Union named after Mahtumkuli. The overall objective of the training was to prepare the pool of peer education trainers from different provinces across the country. Fifty young people have participated in the training.  

“The ultimate goal of this activity was to build capacities of youth activists from the Youth Union who will continue improving access of youth to information on reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and other STIs prevention, gender equality and other important issues,” commented Jennet Appova, UNFPA Assistant Representative.  “More young people will have access to alternative services where they can access information on healthy life style and reproductive health of adolescents.” 

“Young motivated people will transfer knowledge to their peers through “peer-to-peer” education method.  This approach will allow us to ensure that more young people have the optimal level of knowledge necessary to ensure adequate protection of their health and have informative decisions for practicing safe behavior,” said Jennet Shihmuradova, UNFPA Project Associate on Advocacy, Youth and Gender.   

“This training gave me the opportunity to learn peer-to-peer education methodology, which I will use to transfer knowledge to other young people about healthy behaviour,” says Jemal Agayeva, 16 years, from Mary.  “We learned about infectious diseases and its transmission in a very easy language. Out trainers introduced us to the problem from other perspective and now I understand why it is important to transfer knowledge about HIV/AID and STI prevention to my peers,” added Shirin Hudaiberenova, 17 years from Mary. “We learned leadership skills during the training which will help us in our future work with our peers.  We also appreciate that the training was held in an interactive manner: we could practice to make presentations, to engage groups in activities, we have watched movies on healthy and safe behaviour practices,” said participants of the training in Turkmenibashi. 

This activity has been organized within the UNFPA regional project titled “Improving the Sexual and Reproductive Health of Adolescents and Young People in the Central Asian Republics, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine.” Finish Government is the main donor of the project.   

This training is also organized as a part of the Y-PEER movement in Turkmenistan, which is a groundbreaking and comprehensive youth-to-youth initiative pioneered by UNFPA.  Y-PEER network in Turkmenistan includes about 60 young people who work in the many areas surrounding adolescent sexual and reproductive health.   

“Being members of the Y-PEER network in Turkmenistan since 2008, we contribute to and benefit from the resource materials, tools, training programmes and campaigns provided by the Y-PEER website, electronic communications, and face-to-face meetings with other youth people in our country and abroad,” say Dima Jerebtsov, Jenel Klycheva, Nastya Zaitseva, Nyazik Sayatova, and other peer trainers from Ashgabat.  

Trained young people will meet in Ashgabat on 11 July 2009 for the events organized by UNFPA Turkmenistan, Youth Union and Health Information Center to join the global community in celebrating the World Population Day.  On this day, it is planned to hold the Round Table on the population issues, opening of the Y-PEER Center and Hot line for teen girls in the Health Information Center premises. 

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UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.