Health

Some Words from the Action Group 

We have come together and discovered that, despite our cultural differences and discrepancies in access to resources between countries, many of the health issues that concern us are the same. We have found that people's health and wellbeing is impacted upon by issues such as education, employment, discrimination and culture.

People, particularly young people, are suffering from too many preventable illnesses and conditions because they do not have access to primary health care services and health information.

We have found that far too many young people do not have access to information about their reproductive health because of cultural barriers and taboos. Women's health is perpetually suffering because of gender bias in the mainstream health systems.

Many young people still do not have access to clean water.

In response to these key issues that have been identified, we developed action plans to change people's knowledge, attitudes and understanding about their health. One strategy is through educating young people about their health. This will assist them in preventing illness and help them to better take care of themselves, so that the impact of inadequate supplies and services will be minimised.

Other strategies are to fight for adequate access to health care by advocating for policy change, influence the curriculums of academic institutions and change the approaches of educators to women and young people. We will use the media and we will build networks with universities, non-government organisations, governments and the private sector. We aim to empower young people so that they are involved every step of the way.