2022 SYO Annual Report

Annual Report Content

Message from the Board Chair

message from the Executive Director

I am happy to present the 2022 Annual Report, reporting on core activities those were undertaken over the year, proving our impact and believing even better into the near future. SYO continued to thrive in 2022, We delivered innovative program results for our beneficiaries, partners and our stakeholders.

Firstly, I’d like to thank all levels of government of Kenya for their phenomenal support and our development partners this past year of 2022.

We managed to achieve some incredible things that you can read about in this report. We successfully implemented 6 projects reaching a total of 7,027 people, (3,311M, 3,716F). We successfully hosted 4th Girl Summit that was held in Kwale County and graced by Her Excellency Kwale Governor Fatuma Achani, hosted Ministry of Netherlands/Dutch Foreign Affairs Ambassador in one of our activities (MEAT). It was our first time implementing our strategic plan which came with a number of lessons that we are hopeful will be carried forward/ implemented in other years of its implementation. We managed to develop and review SYO Human resource manual together with the Board of directors and it got Approved for implementation – the list goes on. I encourage you to take some time to read our success stories and our work across the three counties (Kwale, Kilifi and Mombasa) of our community engagement, as they are a great reminder of why Stretchers Youth Organization exists.

I am also grateful to our Board of Directors. We have a world-class Board; throughout this year their independent support and expert perspectives have been a huge benefit to our organization.

To SYO staffs, I feel privileged to have you on my team. Words cannot express how I feel. Truly inspirational! Great job guys! You deserve the best.

 

Looking forward to the year ahead, I know that we will continue to work through every challenge that comes our way. So, help us God.

Dickson Obonyo Okong’o

Executive Director

Stretchers Youth Organization

Who We Are

Stretchers Youth Organization is a membership, Youth-led community-based
organization that was founded in 2011 to enhance and promote a healthy, equal, just and inclusive environment for youths through capacity building, advocacy and information sharing for sustainable development. The organization works in the coastal counties of Kenya with a partial presence in Nairobi, Kisumu, and Siaya counties
respectively. The organization is envisioned by its new five year Strategic Plan 2021-2025. We are guided by our vision which stated that “A healthy society where every youthful voice counts”

Stretchers Youth Organization focuses on the needs and potential of the largest young generation in history. We are committed to creating demand for and access to sexual reproductive health information, promoting human rights & gender mainstreaming, democracy and good governance through services and linkages to youths and women.

We achieve this by engaging in advocacy, capacity development, linkages health and human rights services, social media campaigns, peer to peer led activities, which makes sure the youths and women of today are empowered to lead healthy and self-determined lives.

All our programs are geared towards contributing to 6 sustainable development goals (SDGs). We contribute to:

SDG 3. Good Health & Well-Being

SDG 5. Gender Equality

SDG 8. Decent Work and Economic Development

SDG 10. Reduced Inequalities

SDG 16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

SDG 17. Partnerships for the Goals

Our Team

Our Strategies

  • Meaningful Youth Inclusion and Engagement among youth and women in decision making platforms
  • Policy & Budget advocacy on progressive policies and laws affecting the youths and women in Kenya and beyond
  • Strategic Partnership, Collaboration and Networking with strategic partners, the Kenya national and county governments
  • Delivery of innovative programmes to increase access to the most vulnerable and marginalized communities

Our programmes

The Organization works under three thematic areas with its direct beneficiaries

These include;

Health & Well-Being: whose strategic objective is to contribute to improved health outcome and well-being among youth in Kenya. This thematic area focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for youths and women in Kenya is achieved. We create demand to health and well-being services for youths and women and ensure uptake of such services is increased.

We achieve this through employing strategies such as; Strategic Partnership, Collaboration and Networking, Policy advocacy on health issues affecting Youth and Women, Lobbying and Advocating for increased resources on health, Advocate for Behavioral Change and Use of mainstream and social media advocacy to create awareness among others.

We had three projects that were implemented in 2022 (Adolescent Youth Empowerment Health Advocacy, WE LEAD and One by One HIV campaign)

Democracy and Good Governance: whose strategic objective is to build a good culture of democracy and good governance in Kenya. This thematic area focuses on strengthening citizens’ demand for transparency and accountability in the management of public resources, promoting citizen’s participation in democratic processes and promoting citizen participation in advancing national integration.

We achieve this through employing strategies such as; Empowering youth and women on their civic rights and governance, Advocating for youth and women in meaningful engagement on governance and development process, Use of mainstream and social media advocacy to create awareness, Strategic partnership, collaboration and networking and Advocating for progressing laws and policies affecting youths and women on civic and governance participation among others.

We had four projects implemented under this thematic area in 2022 (Mobilize Empower Actualize Transform, My Vote My Voice My Right)

Human Rights & Gender Mainstreaming: whose strategic objective is to improve access to justice and promote gender equality among youth in Kenya. This thematic area also seeks to promote social justice and realization of potential for youth and women among our communities.

We achieve this thematic area through employing strategies such as; Strategic partnership and collaboration with constitutional commissions & agencies, Community mobilization on gender empowerment, Use of mainstream and social media advocacy to create awareness, Capacity building and creating awareness on gender empowerment and Gender Main-streaming among others.

We had three projects implemented under this thematic area in 2022 (Social Cohesion)

2022 SYO at A Glance

  • 6 projects successfully implemented
  • A TOTAL of 7,027 people, 3,311M, 3,716F reached
  • 3,943 people reached under Health & Well-being thematic area 1,515M, 2,428F
  • 3,084 people reached under Democracy, Good governance & Human rights and gender mainstreaming thematic area 1,750M, 1,334F
  • 4th Girl Summit held in Kwale County and graced by Her Excellency Kwale Governor Fatuma Achani
  • Hosted Ministry of Netherlands/Dutch Foreign Affairs Ambassador in one of our activities (MEAT)
  • Stretchers Youth Organization got nominated for Outstanding Community Service category in the Mombasa Business Awards 2022
  • Stretchers Youth Organization got admitted into Kwale County Adolescent & Young People Sexual Reproductive Health & Rights Technical Working Group as youth technical experts
  • Our work highlighted in 5 National Mainstream TV and 3 National Radio stations
  • Posted 310 facebook posts reaching 25,546 people
  • Tweeted 573 tweets, impressing 1k people, having 51.5k profile visits, achieving 1,418 mentions and garnering 757 new followers.
  • Posted 252 instagram posts, reaching 1,157 people
  • Had a total of 176,836 website visitors

 

2022 projects implemented

THEMATIC AREA 1: HEALTH & WELL-BEING

The following project contributed to strategic objective 1 of our strategic plan 2021-2025; to contribute to improved health outcome and well-being among youth in Kenya.

Project 1.0 AYEHA

This is an ongoing project that sought to follow-up concerns and issues arising from the Community Talking Boxes to address the information gap for adolescents and young people and youth peer mentors/providers on provision of comprehensive sexuality education. This was traditionally a way of engaging adolescents and young people on matters of their sexuality. The model borrowed heavily from how the African parents used to engage their children on sexuality topics. It mixed the African approach to educating children on comprehensive sexuality education where the topics discussed have been derived from the needs of adolescents and young people themselves.

Strategic Goal: To contribute to improved health and well-being of adolescent and young people in Mombasa County

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

  1. To improve equitable access to quality adolescents and young people-friendly sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)/HIV information and services
  2. To strengthen the meaningful engagement of communities in adolescents and young people programs and policy processes
  • To strengthen multi-sectorial coordination on SRHR/HIV health outcomes among adolescents and young people in Mombasa county by 2023

This is an ongoing project being implemented for 12 months (April 2022 – March 2023) that is funded by Population Connection. We first engaged with the Ministry of Education, School Health Coordinators, Teachers Service Commission, head teachers and principals of all the 11 schools where we had installed the Community Talking Box in multi-sectorial engagement meetings to allow for ownership of the project. We then trained guiding and counselling teachers on the usage of community talking box and how to address the challenges coming from the box. The trained guiding and counselling teachers with youth mentors held mentorship sessions with adolescents in schools.

Results: The project reached a total of 3,000 adolescents and young people throughout its implementation period. The beneficiaries were reached through mentorship sessions, targeted community outreaches, community dialogue, international days, policy makers meeting and The Girl summit event. 75 mentorship sessions were held; 9 in Changamwe Secondary School, 6 in Umoja Primary School, 6 in Jomvu Girls Secondary School, 9 in Maweni Secondary School, 9 in Ganjoni Primary School, 7 in Makande Primary School, 8 in Mtongwe Primary School, 5 in Khadija Secondary School, 8 in Pentros Primary School, 8 in Kashani Secondary School. A number of issues were raised in the community talking boxes and most issues raised revolved around school administration wise.

As a result, these activities improved health outcomes and wellbeing of the adolescents in schools that the project was being implemented. We saw improved opening up of students/pupils with mental health issues affecting them through the community talking box and mentorship sessions conducted.

Project 2.0 WE LEAD

We Lead’s goal is to: by the end of 2025, resilient young women with disabilities, living with HIV, affected by displacement or identifying as LBTI, play a leading role in strengthened and inclusive organizations and movements that enjoy increased public support and have convinced duty-bearers and health-service providers to take steps towards implementing laws, policies and practices that respect and protect these young women’s SRH-R”.

Stretchers Youth Organization is working towards building public support through holding community awareness, sensitization and use of information and communication approaches that aims to see to it that the targeted rights holders get positive recognition and support from the general public. SYO is working towards building and strengthening the rights holders’ individual and organizations capacities through the consistent application of the principles of non-discrimination, active participation and inclusion. By doing this, our right holders are empowered and have more control over decisions and resources that determine the quality of SRH-R services including structural inequalities hindering them from being heard.

This is an ongoing 5 year project (2021-2025) being implemented by a consortium of 11 organizations in Kenya where Stretchers Youth Organization implements it in Mombasa County with young women living with HIV/AIDS as their Right Holders. The project is being funded by HIVOS with Centre for Study of Adolescence being the Host Kenyan organization.

Results: We first trained 30 right holders on policy and budget advocacy to enable them have skills and knowledge in advocating for progressive SRHR policies and budgets that reflects on the needs of young women living with HIV/AIDS. The 30 right holders in turn held strategic meetings with key policy makers at County and National level of governments to review policies and budgets, participated in public participation forums among many others.

As a result, these activities improved confidence of our right holders to have meetings with key policy and decision makers on the need to invest in young women living with HIV/AIDS. Through this project we managed to develop Monitoring & Evaluation manual.

Project 3.0 One by One HIV Campaign

This is an advocacy approach project that was used to create public awareness on mechanisms against HIV related violations and gender discrimination through digital platforms targeting the adolescents and young people, parents and caregivers, healthcare providers and the key policy makers. The project developed a gallery photos and short videos with information that promote  adolescents and young people living with HIV to access Sexual reproductive health services and information regardless of their health status. The gallery and the short videos also contained advocacy messaging that promotes implementation of laws, policies, legal framework and commitments that support access to services and information to the adolescents and young people living with HIV.

Objective

  1. To create public awareness on the effects of stigma and discrimination among the adolescents and young people living with HIV through social media campaigns.
  2. To empower adolescents and young people living with HIV on development of advocacy messaging against stigma and discrimination through digital platform
  • To advocate for quality implementation of laws, policies, legal framework and commitments that support access to services and information to the adolescents and young people living with HIV

Results: We first held a virtual training for 20 champions who would help creating knowledge to the general public on the effects of stigma and discrimination among the adolescents and young people living with HIV through social media campaigns and how to conduct advocacy through social media platforms such as facebook, twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp among others.

THEMATIC AREA 2: DEMOCRACY & GOOD GOVERNANCE

The following projects contributed to strategic objective 2 of our strategic plan 2021-2025; to build a good culture of democracy and good governance in Kenya.

Project 4.0: Mobilize Empower Actualize Transform (MEAT)

This is a 24 month project (July 2021 – July 2023) and is supported by Voice under the influence grant. The goal of the project is to promote increased peaceful inclusion of youth in political processes in the forthcoming general election so as to ensure that they have greater participation in decision making roles which have a large impact in their lives.

Project goal

Strategic Goal: To promote increased peaceful inclusion of youth in political processes in the forthcoming general election so as to ensure that they have greater participation in decision making roles which have a large impact in their lives

Project objectives

  1. To promote meaningful youth engagement on democratic, political and electoral participation processes in coastal region of Kenya.
  2. To increase knowledge about democratic, political and electoral processes among youths and women across the coastal region of Kenya.
  • To raise awareness on civic education among the youth in three counties of the Coast by enhancing their full participation in democratic, political and electoral processes.

Results: Within the 18 months of project implementation in Mombasa, Kwale and Kilifi Counties, Our 60 trained civic educators in Mombasa, Kwale & Kilifi Counties contributed to sustained peace during the August 2022 general elections in the Coastal region (Kwale, Kilifi and Mombasa) and Kenya at large. The 60 trained civic educators in Mombasa, Kwale & Kilifi Counties led civic awareness at grassroots level before, during and after August 2022 general elections hence changing the mindset of communities towards registering as voters and participating in electoral process at grassroots level.

As a result,

Project 5.0: My Vote My Voice My Right (MVMVMR)

With civic space becoming increasingly under threat from state actors, and as the country debates the need for a constitutional amendment that includes a push to secure a feasible pathway to gender parity in representation, resource distribution and fair representation coupled with an general election in held August 2022, engagement of civil society organizations,  trade unions, media, women, youth and community-based organizations was vital in shaping and influencing community dialogues and decisions for greater public good.

A 10 months (Mar – Dec 2022) project funded by Solidarity Centre that was implemented in the 6 sub-counties Mombasa County.

Project Objectives

  1. To bolster civic participation of trade unions, civil society, women, youth and media organizations in Kenya’s 2022 general elections.

Results: We conducted 60 civic education awareness engagements, 6 community theatre for civic awareness, 6 open mic youth forums, 20 social media engagements, 1 county hall meeting and participated in the monitoring & observation of the August 2022 general elections across the 6 sub-counties of Mombasa (Changamwe, Jomvu, Mvita, Kisauni, Nyali and Likoni).

As a result, our civic education awareness engagements contributed to sustained peace during the August 2022 general elections in Mombasa County.

THEMATIC AREA 3: HUMAN RIGHTS & GENDER MAINSTREAMING

The following projects contributed strategic objective 3 of our strategic plan 2021-2025; to improve access to justice and promote gender equality among youth in Kenya.

Project 6.0 Social Cohesion

Conflict is ubiquitous in all societies. It is a phenomenon that is inevitable in all human society due to differences in interests, goals, values and aims among people. Amongst most African communities, there are frameworks that are in place for the resolution of conflicts and for preventing their escalation into violence, thus threatening the social fabric. It is on this background that as an organization working closely with the national government ministry of interior, and other stakeholders, therefore sought to conduct a number of communities barazas in Mombasa County towards promoting cohesion and peaceful coexistence around the outcome of the general elections by de-escalating tensions and strengthening community resilience to online and offline violence drivers.

This was a 4 months (Sept-Dec 2022) project funded by Search for Common Ground to support implementation of activities towards addressing elections related conflicts and tensions.

Project Objective.

  1. To de-escalate tensions and strengthening community resilience to online and offline violence drivers.

Results: As a result of the 6 activities held in the six sub-counties of Mombasa reaching over 1,000 people contributed to calmness and acceptance from the community members of the 2022 general elections held in August.

Achievements for 2022

  • We successfully implemented 6 impactful projects (funding from Search for Common Ground, Population Connection, CSA-HIVOS, The ACCESS Challenge, Solidarity Centre and Voice to support our projects) in Mombasa, Kwale and Kilifi Counties – Kenya in the year 2022 targeting youth and women in Kenya.
  • We hosted Ministry of Netherlands/Dutch Foreign Affairs Ambassador in one of our activities (MEAT) and later on visited our offices. This increased our visibility as an organization.
  • Successfully conducted the 4th Girl Summit in Kwale County graced by Her Excellency Kwale Governor Fatuma Achani
  • We successfully developed 10 program management tools include; lessons learnt, project charter, communication management plan, stakeholder plan, success story, outcome harvesting, and risk management plan among others.
  • We developed over 20 proposals in the year 2022, 10 out of the 20 proposals went through which represents a 50% success rate.

 

  • We developed and approved by Stretchers Youth Organization Board of Management Monitoring & Evaluation manual for the organization that improves the M&E department

 

  • Our project implementation rates stood as follows by 31st December 2022;
  • SOCIAL COHESION STANDS AT 100%, WE LEAD STANDS AT 100%, MVMVMR STANDS AT 100%, AYEHA STANDS AT 75%, MEAT STANDS AT 72%
  • Our 2022 Annual work-plan implementation success rate stood at 117% as at 31st December 2022. A good indicator that we are on course with our Strategic Plan 2021-2025 tracking and its implementation.
  • We continued implementing our Strategic Plan 2021-2025
  • Stretchers Youth Organization got nominated for Outstanding Community Service category in the Mombasa Business Awards 2022
  • Our work highlighted in 5 National Mainstream TV and 3 National Radio stations
  • Hosted 4 twitter chats and 2 twitter spaces highlighting our good work
  • Conducted 25 facebook live sessions highlighting our good work
  • Documented 12 documentary videos highlighting our good work

 

Our advocacy efforts contributed to;

  1. Our advocacy efforts contributed to Kwale County Department of Health establishment of their first ever Adolescent & Young People Sexual Reproductive Health & Rights Technical Working Group
  2. Our advocacy efforts contributed to the organization being Included in Kwale County Adolescent & Young People Sexual Reproductive Health & Rights Technical Working Group as youth technical experts

 

Target Beneficiaries Reached with our programmes;

  • We reached a total of 7,027 people, 3,311M, 3,716F reached with our programmes in the year 2022.

Age Segregation per organization thematic areas outlined below for the year 2022:

 

 

Success Stories

Name:  PENINAH AKEYO

Sub County:  CHANGAMWE

Ward: KIPEVU

“I was invited by the Stretchers Youth Organisation for a two days training on Sexual Reproductive Health and was selected to be part of the WE LEAD champions. Since becoming a champion, I have had a passion in advocating on issues of Maternal and newborn care, Sexual reproductive health for adolescents, and creating awareness on Sexual reproductive health in my community. This is because I was also a volunteer at Portreiz hospital and it was sad seeing a lot of cases of infant mortality and maternal deaths especially on adolescents’ and young women.  Given the risk associated with adolescent pregnancy and their elevated risk of HIV and other STIs, as a champion I work towards improving access to sexual reproductive health information and services for them. Together with my fellow champions, we advocate to ensure inclusiveness to all people in need of reproductive health services: women, men, adolescents, young people, LGBTQ and FSWs. It is crucial to raise awareness for sexual reproductive health and health-related services by informing people on the topic. I therefore used the knowledge I had to educate adolescents and young people in my community and also in the hospital that I volunteered. The change from the WE LEAD project was important since I’m now an advocate who can also educate others on the importance of Sexual Reproductive Health and HIV and the challenges at large, and also be able to find possible solutions to these problems. Since the WE LEAD training, I have been able to empower my peers through creation of health education to the community members to enable them understand better about SRH. Stretchers Youth Organization has enabled me and my fellow champions to get trained about SRH, and that has in turn enabled most of us champions to get a clear and better understanding about SRH laws and policies and how to implement them at the community level. I have been able to learn about the conventions and laws about SRH at large and how to put them to practice. I appreciate that in 2022 I had opportunity to participate in WE LEAD project Training on health Advocacy, Training on Regional and International Laws and Policies in conjunction with SRH.”

Name: Mishi Abedi

Sub County:     Jomvu                                        

Ward: Mikindani

“I was informed by my mentor mother about the invitation by Stretchers Youth Organization to attend a training and since then I have been involved as a rights holder in the WE LEAD project.

Through the advocacy trainings, I have been able to educate fellow Adolescents and Young people on their sexual reproductive health rights. I have also been able to make informed decision as young woman and looking forward to improving my interactions with my fellow young women in my community and network as well. Through the knowledge attained from the different WE LEAD engagements, I  have been informed as an individual together with other  adolescents girls and young women  on the laws that govern  girls and women issues  on their reproductive rights The fact that I have skills on how to engage the decision makers is an important asset for me. I can confidently face policy makers and advocate for issues that affect the adolescents’ girls and young women living with HIV. I got the opportunity to meet the member of parliament of Jomvu and I used my advocacy skill to advocate for the rights of girls and young women.  Trust given to me by Stretchers Youth Organization and the desire to support the community and share the knowledge attained from the WE LEAD training are the contributing factors towards the change. Knowledge and the capacity building from SYO were the best input .I have learnt the Advocacy techniques and I have also have been able to know the existing national and international laws on sexual reproductive Health Rights. I have received Advocacy training and training on Laws and policies guiding sexual reproductive health rights. “

Name: Eva Mbeyu

Sub County:     Nyali                                        

Ward: Ziwa La Ng’ombe

“I saw a post on a HIV champion’s campaign WhatsApp group by Edward Sakwa asking if anyone would be willing to attend the training on we lead at Changamwe and I responded.  Since becoming a champion I became more aware of the statistics situation of HIV in Mombasa, learnt on the sexual and reproductive rights as portrayed in the constitution, learnt on how to do effective advocacy and also got inspired on how I can be innovative in championship on young people’s issues. Before the trainings, I knew about HIV/AIDs being a problem among the youth but I did not know how deep rooted it is and the current situation in terms of numbers. I had the opportunity to learn that and also to learn on how SRHR are portrayed in the constitution and how we can always refer back in the fight for our rights through effective advocacy strategies. The change was more important because it makes me to be more engaged in policy making and holding duty bearers accountable with each policy made and on every violation made. The key factors that contributed were; Stretchers goodwill to empower the youths and the community, self-motivation and the urge to learn. The SYO contributions gave me the opportunity to go to the trainings and learn and to have a change of mindset. As a result of the project, I have learnt that Change is inevitable and we still have a long way to go as a country. I was able to be trained on Sexual Reproductive Health Rights advocacy “

Our Partners

 

Our Funding Partners

Solidarity Centre

Population Connection

SFCG

European Union

Voice

HIVOS

CSA

The ACCESS Challenge

Our Implementing Partners

Kituo Cha Sheria

Our Strategic Partners

National & County Gov’t.

 

UNFPA Kenya

 

 

Communications & Publicity 2022

In 2022, our communications and public relations department continued to focus on adapting approaches and strategies in increasing SYO’s visibility through mainstream and social media engagements. Such strategies and approaches included, capacity building for our communications and public relations department personnel, robust engagements in twitter storms/chats and incorporating our activities with live streaming.

These activities contributed to raising SYO’s share of online voice and profile. The number of SYO’s related live-streaming and tweeter engagements in our social media platforms & major local, regional and international media outlets.

We appeared in 5 National TV stations and 3 radio stations discussing on issues affecting youth and women as stated below;

In our social media platforms;

Posted 310 facebook posts reaching 25,546 people

Tweeted 573 tweets, impressing 138.1k people, having 51.5k profile visits, achieving 1,418 mentions and garnering 757 new followers.

Posted 252 instagram posts, reaching 1,157 people

Had a total of 176,836 website visitors

2022 Pictorials

 

 

Our Contacts