The AstraZeneca Young Health Programme works to help young people aged 10-24 to take control of their health, especially to combat long-term conditions such as cancers, diabetes, respiratory and heart diseases, and mental ill health. These are often called non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
My experience with Young Health Programme starts from 2016 when I initially started to engage with this programme from its inception as a peer educator and an NCDs advocate. 5 years later I run my own organization, Stowelink Inc that continues to focus on educating and creating NCDs champions out of young people. The Young Health Programme gave me a lot of understanding on what non communicable diseases are and set me up on a trajectory to creating more NCDs champions. Its because of this that I was very excited to train the next generation of peer educators for the young health programme shortly after being engaged as a co host in the launching of this initiative.
Training the next generation of Young Health Programme peer educators in the middle of a pandemic was a particularly exciting experience. This is because now more than ever young people are needed to champion and educate their peers and the community about non communicable diseases in an effort to give the community an ability to make informed health decisions. But also, because as covid 19 has showed us, people living with non-communicable diseases are at a greater risk of contacting covid 19 and developing complications as well. I was therefore honored to train the next generation of very passionate young people who want to create a real change to their communities through the young health programme by educating and empowering the communities with relevant knowledge on non-communicable diseases.
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STEPHEN OGWENO 