RHAY 2022 Pre-Conference

A three-day pre-conference workshop was held on December 16th-18th of 2018 regarding piloting a planned international conference on Reducing HIV in Adolescents and Youth at Tom Mboya Labour College in Kisumu, Kenya.
The workshop was organized by RHAY conveners; Impact Research & Development Organization (IRDO), Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), and Nyanza Initiative for Girls’ Education and Empowerment (NIGEE).
A total of 211 participants attended the workshop: 152 AYP ages 15-24 years, 37 guests (mainly presenters and co-organizers and 22 journalists from nine media houses.

AYP were drawn from seven countries in western Kenya: Kisumu, Siaya, Homabay, Migori, Busia, Kisii and Nyamira. Eight facilitators made oral presentations on different topics on HIV/AIDS: Understanding HIV among AYP, PrEP, HIV Care and Treatment, HIV self-testing, Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision, STIs, DREAMS and POWER Study. In addition, there were three poster presentations on HIV self-testing, PrEP, and a community engagement model to improve adherence of AYP to PrEP. Several group sessions were held to discuss presentations, suggest improvements and strategies to engage AYP in the then forthcoming conference – the RHAY conference (http://localhost/rhay-2022-conference/)  which was later held in June 2022. Delegates also gave opinions on conference theme, logo, chief guests they would want to see, corporate colors, dates and general look and feel of the conference, secretariat and the process.