GOJoven Alumni Associations: Youth-led, Youth-serving NGOs Fighting for Reproductive Rights

GOJoven International is a pioneer in youth leadership development and mobilization. The GOJoven Model is youth-led, local, diverse, and inclusive. Since 2004, GOJoven has worked to build the capacity of young leaders and organizations to create positive change in Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (ASRHR) programs, policies, and services in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and Quintana Roo, Mexico.

Since 2011 in Belize, and 2013 in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, GOJoven International has partnered with the local GOJoven Alumni groups in each country to found and launch their own independent youth-led, youth-serving NGOs.

These four GOJoven Alumni Associations are sustaining the GOJoven mission and expanding the GOJoven Model to greater cadres of young leaders, health and education service providers, and policymakers in the region.

Through their advocacy efforts, the GOJoven Alumni Associations have contributed directly to the passage and adoption of numerous rights-based policies and initiatives in their countries, such as: Belize’s National Positive Youth Development Curriculum (2014), Guatemala’s Child Marriage Ban (Decrees 8-2015 & 13-2017), Honduras’ National Sexual & Reproductive Health Policy (2016), and Quintana Roo’s State Group for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (GEPEA, 2015).

In total, the GOJoven Alumni Associations alone have reached 52,000+ youth and adolescents; trained and supported 235 New GOJoven Fellows, 17,500+ other youth and adolescents, and 1,700+ health, education & service providers; and improved the lives of over 10 million youth and adolescents through policy change.

Learn more about the GOJoven Alumni Associations

GOBelize

GOBelize commits itself to contribute to the increase in knowledge of sexual reproductive health, enhance leadership skills and promote environmental consciousness in Belizean youth in order to stimulate positive behavior change and communication in an atmosphere of fellowship.

Select achievements of GOBelize:

• Organized & launched the first youth-run, youth-serving ASRH non-governmental organization in Belize, with graduated fellows serving as board members & staff
• Reached over 11,000 youth & adolescents in all districts of Belize by providing ASRH trainings & information to youth to reduce adolescent pregnancy, HIV & other STI transmission
• Advocated to expand the UNDP target age for HIV-prevention education among out-of-school youth in response to data showing that younger adolescents are sexually active, and provided HIV prevention education to 4,100 out-of-school at-risk youth through the UNDP-funded “Youth Empowerment Project,” reaching the most remote communities
• Worked alongside the Ministries of Health and Human Development to contribute to designing Belize’s Adolescent Health Strategic Plan 2020-2025, in which they successfully promoted the inclusion of youth-friendly ASRH spaces and services and the guarantee of access to services without parental consent for minors
• Reduced pregnancy-related school drop outs at Centro Escolar Mexico Junior College in Corozal by integrating ASRH into the school curriculum and creating an ASRH Club for extra-curricular student engagement, as the result of a GOJoven Belize Leadership Action Plan and GOJoven Institutional Strengthening seed funding

GOJoven Honduras

GOJoven Honduras promotes comprehensive development to improve the quality of life of adolescents and youth through capacity-building, collective advocacy and a focus on guaranteeing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all youth in Honduras.

Select achievements of GOJoven Honduras:

• Reached over 26,000 youth and adolescents throughout Honduras with SRHR trainings and information to reduce adolescent pregnancy, HIV transmission and sexually transmitted infections, through workshops, health fairs and action campaigns
• Opened youth friendly spaces and clinics to meet the SRH needs of thousands of adolescents and youth, and developed radio and television programming to inform thousands of youth of their SRHR
• Created three Departmental Youth Platforms and one National Youth Platform, made up of 95 youth from 6 departments who were trained by GOJoven Honduras and actively volunteer in the organization’s advocacy efforts
• Led advocacy campaigns for legalizing Emergency Contraception (EC) in Honduras and participated in the Strategic Group for EC Legalization (GE-PAE), working alongside Members of Congress from across the country to improve public opinion and acceptance among decision-makers
• Leveraged grant funding to create and implement innovative initiatives to reduce HIV transmission in LGBTQI youth and gender-based violence in public and private spheres

GOJoven Mexico (Mexico y Caribe Jovenes)

GOJoven Mexico works to empower adolescents and young people in Mexico to exercise their human rights, particularly their sexual and reproductive health rights.

Select achievements of GOJoven in Quintana Roo:

• Mobilized civil society and government organizations to jointly advocate for the creation of the State Group for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (GEPEA) in Quintana Roo, a new state mechanism for implementing the National Strategy for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention
• Co-founded in 2015 and actively participate in the youth-led Quintana Roo Youth Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (RQDSRJ in Spanish), which is the entity representing youth civil society in the state’s GEPEA and advocates Congress on a wide array of pro-youth measures to improve sexual and reproductive rights
• Advocated alongside local and international coalitions to ensure that comprehensive sexuality education be made part of secondary school curricula and to request the creation of public policies and programs that ensure the acknowledgement and respect for the rights of Mexican youth
• Implemented 9 community-based Leadership Action Plans that directly trained and educated more than 3,000 youth and adolescents, particularly marginalized indigenous youth, throughout Quintana Roo with ASRH trainings and information to reduce adolescent pregnancy, HIV transmission, and sexually transmitted infections
• Strengthened the skills of 30 adolescent boys ages 13-18 through the J-Xiibal Collective in the Maya community Chunhuhub in ongoing trainings around healthy masculinities with support from the Global Fund for Children, who in turn reached over 500 other adolescent students from the community with SRHR training
• Opened a youth-friendly space to improve access to health services and ASRH information for close to 1,000 youth, most of whom are indigenous Hosted a community service event catering to mothers, children, and young adolescents in the Mayan communities of Felipe Carrillo Puerto and Tulum, with support from the Buckner Foundation

GOJoven Guatemala

GOJoven Guatemala fights for the observance and enactment of sexual and reproductive rights (SRR) of marginalized adolescents and youth in Guatemala through training, research, communication, and political advocacy in various levels of national public administration and the international community.

Select achievements of GOJoven Guatemala:

• Graduated three new generations of Fellows from GOJoven Guatemala between 2015 and 2018, using the GOJoven Model, for a total of 62 new young leaders from 11 departments across the country
• Mobilized hundreds of adolescents and youth to advocate decision-makers and contribute a youth perspective to the debates in Congress about the National Youth Law 38-96 initiative
• Developed advocacy actions that contributed to the approval of Decree 8-2015, which modified the Civil Code to raise the minimum age of marriage for adolescents, and Decree 13-2017, which closed remaining loopholes thus making this child marriage ban truly enforceable
• Reached more than 18,000 youth and adolescents with ASRH trainings and information to reduce adolescent pregnancy, HIV transmission and sexually transmitted infections
• Designed and implemented an intercultural SRHR and CSE training with over 1,600 Quiché Mayan indigenous young men and women ages 13-18 and in partnership with 19 community organizations in the municipalities of Totonicapán and Quiché