Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea - Grace Lasi was one of many children who grew up in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (ARoB) during the Bougainville crisis in the late 1990s when the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) was fighting for independence from Papua New Guinea. Now 28 years old, she wants to help other young people know how they can help themselves recover from post-conflict trauma and make the right decisions in life.

“I really want to help the young people to know that they can help themselves, look in the right direction, see their future as something valuable and by doing this, they will see positive changes in themselves, their families, their communities, their region and globally,” says Grace.

Dropping out of school in her teens, she has been doing voluntary work at the Catholic Nazarene Rehabilitation Centre (CNRC) in South Bougainville since 2011. Being a role model to other young people and always keen to help others, she was selected for leadership training organized by the Catholic Church. Despite her family’s impoverished settings, she faithfully continues to volunteer her time and energy to help others.

“My family questions me many times on why I want to work for free as a volunteer but I like to tell myself that it is a good thing to be helping other people,” Grace explains.

Recently she was selected by the CNRC to attend the Family Planning Advocacy Meeting organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in partnership with the Government of Bougainville and the National Department of Health to share her story.

Grace spoke about why she and other young people need to know about sexual and reproductive health and why she is keen to spread her message:

• learning about sexual and reproductive health is not a shameful thing;
• respect for other people is embraces our shared humanity and underscores human rights;
• young people and parents should talk openly about sexual and reproductive health issues and not wait until something goes wrong to address them.

Having spent all her life in Bougainville, Grace is very well aware of some of the issues her peers face daily. Bougainville has a total official population of 274,000 people and over 60% of them are young people. Women and girls face significant difficulties accessing maternal health and family planning services and unfortunately many of them die while delivering or right after giving birth. Gender based violence, teenage pregnancies and high HIV rates are issues affecting young people which need to be addressed better.

Through her work, Grace is advocating for more young people to be involved in the decision making process, and for more skills training to be given to out-of-school youth so that they can contribute meaningfully to their families and communities.

“I think this is very important because when youths drop out of school and are unemployed there are a lot of social problems,” she said, as she looks around at the young people loitering outside the village markets and shops.

- Ruth Kaiau Pisi