Sanne Thijssen is the Sexual and Reproductive and Health Rights (SRHR) Youth ambassador of the Netherlands. Since September 2016, she is raising the voice of youth, to ensure better access to SRHR information and services. We talked to Sanne about her work and views.

Jennifer Amadi works as Advocacy Advisor at African Youth Initiative on Population, Health & Development (AfrYPoD). Together with Simavi’s Public Affiars Officer Morillio Williams, Jennifer is co-chair of the RHSC Youth Caucus. The Youth group aims to increase access to reproductive health supplies by making available research and data on youth contraceptives and other maternal health supplies needs, and also to strengthen young people’s engagement and participation within the Coalition.We spoke to Jennifer about the Youth Caucus Key Messages during the High Level Political Forum in New York.

Together with Solidaridad and Healthy Entrepreneurs, Simavi started the Going for Gold programme to address women’s economic empowerment in the small-scale mining sector. This 5-year programme aims to improve the health and economic opportunities for women living in and around artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) communities in Western Region, Ghana, and Geita district, Tanzania. We asked Martha Jerome, from Tanzania three questions about this topic.

Seema Gupta works at Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), a local partner of Simavi. As part of the More Than Brides Alliance, Simavi works together with VHAI to reduce child marriage and its adverse effects on young women and girls in India. Seema is the programme director of this programme, called Marriage: No Child’s Play programme. We spoke to her in the lights of the UN follow-up and review of the Sustainable Development Goals.

As well as studying Water Science and Management at Utrecht University, Irene Otieno is part of Simavi’s programme department on WASH Policy Influencing and Social Inclusion. Irene grew up in a village in Homabay county, Kenya, and she is fiercely committed to fighting the global water, sanitation and hygiene crisis by positively influencing WASH policy. We asked her three questions ahead of the forthcoming Global Citizens Festival, where she will share her personal story with the crowd.

Menstruation is a natural and essential part of the reproductive cycle. However, in most parts of the world it remains a taboo subject that is rarely talked about. We talked to Pim van der Male, Senior Policy Officer WASH at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, about this topic. What are his thought about menstrual hygiene management?

‘We need She Decides now more than ever.’ That was Dutch development minister Lilianne Ploumen’s message on her return from a two-day working visit to Kenya, where she went to see several programmes working for sexual health, family planning and safe abortion. Including the Get UP Speak Out programme, a joint programme developed by Simavi, Rutgers (lead), CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality, Dance4life, Stop AIDS Now! And International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)). We talked to Ploumen about her field visit.

During the SWA High-level Meetings in Washington D.C., Simavi spoke to Samson Shivaji, CEO of KEWASNET and Steering Committee member on behalf of the African CSOs. We were curious to hear his expectations and hopes for the future of WASH.