Valentine’s Day at Action Health Incorporated is an event young people never want to miss. The event is celebrated each year ‘with lots of young people in attendance. To accommodate the teeming crowd and provide an opportunity for young people to participate, AHI’s Valentine’s Day was commemorated both at the AHI Youth Centre and in 5 selected secondary schools. The theme for the activities, which held simultaneously at the selected venues, was “Expressing Love With Abstinence”.
The exciting and interactive activities presented an opportunity for young people to express their views about love and learn from their peers. In a participatory discussion, some of the young people defined love as “an emotional feeling for someone,” while others described love as a “strong attraction to someone.” Many of them believed it was important to express love and identified ways love could be expressed including inviting the person to their house for lunch, holding hands, touching, giving gifts and cards, watching movies together, playing games together, sharing information which could be mutually beneficial and helping with house chores and school assignments. The young people also agreed that love could be expressed through mutual acceptance, trust commitment, respect, loyalty and active listening. True love, according to them, also meant not forcing someone against his/her will.
A lot of discussions were also held around abstinence and skills for abstaining. Some of the teenagers demonstrated the skills through role-plays using the SWAT Technique:
- Saying No effectively,
- Why (giving reasons for saying No),
- Alternative (suggesting alternative actions or activities), and
- Talking or discussing one’s feelings.
Other exciting activities included drama presentations and cutting of the Valentine’s Day cake by a representative of each school in attendance. A total of 395 young people (117 boys and 279 girls) attended the event.
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