Η κα. Δέσποινα Μιχαηλίδου, εθελόντρια του Κυπριακού Συνδέσμου Οικογενειακού Προγραμματισμού, εκπροσώπησε το ΣυΝΚ σε συνάντηση που πραγματοποιήθηκε στις 6 Νοεμβρίου 2010 στις Βρυξέλλες, σε συνεργασία με το Ευρωπαϊκό Φόρουμ Νεολαίας (YFJ) και στη Διεθνή Ομοσπονδία Οικογενειακού Προγραμματισμού (IPPF), με σκοπό τον Σχεδιασμό Κοινής Δράσης και τη διερεύνηση για ενδεχόμενα συνεργασίας ανάμεσα στους δύο φορείς, σε θέματα που άπτονται της Σεξουαλικής Αναπαραγωγικής Υγείας και Δικαιωμάτων (ΣΑΥΔ). Εκτενής αναφορά της κας. Μιχαηλίδου παρατίθεται πιο κάτω.
Name of participant: Despina Michaelidou
Title of the meeting: Action planning meeting between European Youth Forum and International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network (IPPF EN)/ Y SAFE – Youth Sexual Awareness for Europe
Date of the meeting: 6th of November preceded by a preliminary meeting on the 5th in the afternoon for YFJ MOs
Place: Brussels
Aims: This meeting provided an opportunity to further develop the work of the European Youth Forum on sexual and reproductive health and rights, to explore the possibilities for cooperation between the YFJ MOs and the expert NGO in the field, IPPF, as well as to develop ideas for projects and advocacy at local, national and regional level.
Meeting objectives action planning training:
1. an increased knowledge on the IPPF and YFJ networks with a focus on the SRHR policies
2. build an alliance between the two movements
3. agree on a Terms of Reference for collaboration
4. develop a joint action plan for advocacy activities on the European (and possibly national levels)
On the 5th of November, Member Organizations of YFJ had the opportunity to meet each other and prepare for the actual meeting of 6th of November.
The program in the 6th of November included: presentation of the Youth Link project and the partner organizations (JFJ and YSAFE IPPF EN). Then we explored our common areas of work and common values in regards to SRHR. Afterwards we further discussed ways the organizations can work effectively together. At the core conclusion, we realised that there are already many overlapping areas of work where we can build on in our future joint advocacy work. In two groups we were then asked to develop the specific vision and mission of the SRHR movement.
In the end, the following vision and mission was created:
Vision:
All young people in Europe and Central Asia are empowered and granted sexual and reproductive rights in order to live healthy and fulfilled lives.
Mission:
Our mission, via joint movement at both European and local levels, is to advocate for the sexual and reproductive health of young people through a rights based approach. We work to ensure the wellbeing of young people by advocating for universal access to high quality, youth-friendly health services and for a more comprehensive approach to sex education that includes a positive, respectful and diverse approach to sex, sexuality and families.
We agreed to focus our advocacy work on the needs of vulnerable groups and we identified as the main target group policy makers at national, European and local levels. After that, we brainstormed on potential goals and objectives. For the creation of the Terms of Reference, we were divided into small working groups to brainstorm about the main components of the ToR which are: collaboration, roles & responsibilities, internal & external communication, monitoring & evaluation.
As a general agreement, we pointed out the importance of respecting everyone’s opinions and fields of expertise (e.g. religion, sexual health, LGBT). This is very crucial since this movement includes members from very diverse backgrounds. Furthermore it’s important to keep the group informed about what our organisations are going to plan (e.g. participation in conferences). Therefore constantly reporting on upcoming activities is required. All members need to commit to specific times to work on activities. Gender balance within members of the representing organisations needs to be ensured.
As concrete actions, we came up with ideas to advocate at European and national events. At the end of the meeting we came up with concrete steps to follow and filled in the evaluation form for the meeting.
