Happy International Youth Day! We all know young people are amazing—and they’re the foremost experts on their own sexual and reproductive health needs. That’s why youth must be meaningfully involved in any program to address those needs. 

Here’s one inspiring example of what youth leadership can do:  

Near the end of 2022, Ipas launched a mobile clinic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to provide crucial sexual and reproductive health care—including abortion, contraception, and treatment for sexually transmitted infections—to women and girls displaced by devastating armed conflict. We partnered with the locally founded Youth Alliance for Reproductive Health (YARH), whose trained network of young community leaders worked around the clock to raise awareness of the mobile clinic within the displacement camp where it was operating. In just ten days, the small clinic provided care for almost 1,000 people! 

“As young people co-founding Youth Alliance for Reproductive Health (YARH), we have been solution makers in our community…for what is happening to our peers,” says Dr. Simon Bine Mambo, who co-founded YARH with Ipas DRC’s Dr. Celestine Buyibuyi. “Believe in the power of young people, and you are going to see change.” 

Don’t miss this inspiring story—including many beautiful photos—on our website.