Francis Kessy
I am Co-Founder of The East African Youth Alliance on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights. This is a brain child of young women and men from East African countries namely Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda,Burundi and Tanzania, who attended the 3rd International Conference on Family Planning ICFP2013, in Addis Ababa. Prior to the establishment of the Alliance i worked on Family through different Youth led organization and International organization. I served as Member of the Youth Advisory Panel of UNFPA Tanzania for four years where i was able to access different resources on Family Planning.
My passion for Family was sparked mainly by poverty. I grew up in a rural area where my mother served as a Nurse. I witnessed families suffering because they were huge and could afford meals. This made me to champion for family planning.
The biggest challenge that i have faced in my Family Planning efforts is many people still have negative perspective of family planning. I have been trying to advocate for Family Planning through Social media, radio and television trying to convince the society that family planning is not only good for them but also for the nation and the world at large.
There is a lot of negative perspective of Family Planning. This can be addressed by family planning campaigns that are sustainable.
I want to reach every young person in my Country. I want to continue working on Family Planning and Girls Rights. I am thinking of establishing a local organization that would be working on Family Planning and Gender Equality. I believe the two are sides of the same coin.
