This post originally appeared on The Nation – Malawi. 

Taleka Makunje is among the youth who won a video contest on youth access to family planning from a worldwide contest. She shares her passion of youths rights and the award details with Edyth Kambalame of The Nation.

Tell us briefly about your background

My name is Taleka Makunje. I was born on September 13, 1989. I am the fourth born in a family of five children.

I went to Chichiri Primary School and Stella Maris Secondary School. Then, I studied Media for Development at Chancellor College (Chanco). I am currently working at Centre for Youth Empowerment and Civic Education (CYECE).

Tell us about the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) youth video contest that you recently won.

There was a call for youths from all around the world to submit videos expressing their views on youth access to family planning in their countries.

They received over 180 videos from different countries and mine was one of the best and was selected among the top 25 videos that won.

In my video, I spoke about how most youths are hindered from accessing family planning methods either because of traditional, religious or physical reasons. I went further to explain the interventions that we have been doing at my organisation to ensure that youths access family planning methods without hindrance and how this helped reduce early pregnancies and girls school dropout rates. Winning this contest means I have obtained a full scholarship to attend the 2015 International Conference on Family Planning in Bali, Indonesia scheduled for November 8 to 12. I have also been selected to moderate one of the sessions. The conference will be attended by high level delegates from all around the world, including Melinda Gates, presidents from different states as well as directors from major health organisations. This is a great opportunity to share with the rest of the world what Malawi is doing towards the realization and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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