Gender Links and Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance GEM Plus # VoiceandChoice Summit |06 July 2019

A partial view of delegates at the summit yesterday

Delegates congregated at STC Conference Centre yesterday morning for the Gender Links and Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance GEM Plus #VoiceandChoice summit.

The main purpose of the #VoiceandChoice Summit is to allow delegates to learn and share best practices from various sectors across the country including government departments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations (CBOs), faith-based organisations (FBOs), local government councils as well as the media, on youth engagement, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), governance, climate change, economic justice and drivers of change.

Following a brief introduction of the panelists and judges and an overview of the objectives and rationale of the summit, delegates took to the floor to deliver 15 minutes presentations regarding their projects. Consultant Terrence Vel addressed sexual reproductive health and rights and youth engagement while head of entrepreneurship centre at The Guy Morel Institute Marie-Céline Zialor explored economic justice.

Several other delegates who answered the call to submit their work also presented included Nathalia Lawen whose presentation was centered on the numerous efforts of the ocean project to mitigate climate change through initiatives such as beach clean-ups and the banning of plastic straws.

In the media category, Laura Pillay presented two articles on LGBTI+ in Seychelles and the second on addressing teenage pregnancies through comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and making contraception available to adolescents.

Similarly, presenter Juliette Dine also spoke of her two articles, one of which was centered on the possibilities for same-sex couples in Seychelles to adopt while the other on reproductive health and hormonal imbalances in females.

Following each presentation, invitees and members of the panel were invited to pose questions to the delegates regarding their presentations before judges deliberated on who won in the respective categories.

Winners – Laura Pillay (media), Dr Elvina Henriette (gender and climate climate) – at national level will compete in a regional summit in Johannesburg from November 25-27, at the start of the Sixteen Days of Activism on Violence Against Women.