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Feature Story:
In order to encourage young people to be included in decision-making processes and to ensure that their reproductive healthcare needs are addressed, UNFPA has implemented two specific initiatives. In 2004, the Youth Advisory Panel (YAP) and the Special Youth Program (SYP) were established, with the intent to create a mechanism for open dialogue between UNFPA and young people. Once a year the YAP brings young people ages 15-24 from around the globe to UNFPA headquarters in New York to advise the organization on how best to serve youth, while SYP recruits young people from developing countries to come to New York for six months to increase their knowledge of UNFPA and to participate in planning and evaluating their own country's youth programs. Every intern is encouraged to develop a program that focuses on their region or country. At the end of the term in New York, interns spend three months at a UNFPA County office implementing their ideas. I was among the first youth to get involved with UNFPA's Special Youth Programme. I grew up in Western Kenya, in a Maasai community. I was engaged when I was five years old and was supposed to get married when I turned 14. I had to negotiate with my father to go to secondary school and later with my entire village to come to the United States and get a college education. In 2004, I graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in international studies and political science. I joined UNFPA in September 2004 and my work experience continues to get better and better. I have been able to speak to groups around the United States and the United Kingdom on the importance of youth involvement. It is time for us young people to realize that our efforts today can change the future. We have to be involved in changing policies that affect us now in order to make tomorrow better. As a young person who grew up in rural Kenya, I care about environmental and reproductive health issues. I care about these issues because they directly affect me and others. If I do not take care of the environment today, where will my children live and what will my grandchildren eat? Reproductive health is what makes me who I am. It is my prayer that as young people we unite around the globe and take action on these issues. It is up to us to chase our dreams and to take a stand now for a better tomorrow! In April 2005, Kakenya Ntaiya spoke on a panel "Youth Voices, Youth Action: A Discussion on How Young People are Shaping the Future" at Sierra Club's National Population Activist Training in Washington, DC.
Photo courtesy Kakenya Ntaiya/UNFPA.
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UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is the largest international source of population assistance in the world, working in about 140 countries. Guided by the Programme of Action adopted by 179 governments at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt, UNFPA aims to ensure the right of men and women to decide freely about the number and spacing of their children; and that when the a woman has a baby, both mother and baby are healthy. It also promotes women's and youth empowerment. All of these factors are central to poverty eradication and development. 
