At the first stage of the project, a seminar was held with the assistance of the World Health Organisation (WHO) for representatives of RFPA branches and youth centres from leading Russian regions. Representatives of 16 Russian regions learned counselling skills in dealing with adolescent sexuality and reproductive health. Specialists trained in WHO methods then taught trainers to work with adolescent activists in their local areas. Psychologists, teachers, doctors and youth specialists, who had learned the special features of youth counselling, as well as organising work with adolescent activists, were invited to work as trainers.

An important stage in the campaign was training 15-17-year-old boys and girls in the regions, who were then made responsible for spreading information on how to lead a healthy lifestyle among their peers. The aim of this campaign is simple. Adolescents socialise better and have more points of contact with each other than adults do with young people — in school, at disco clubs, in game arcades, at the cinema, on sports grounds and other places where they meet and spend their free time.

All the young people participating in the project were genuinely interested to learn about subjects which concern them most, but are often taboo both in school and at home, and which they usually only find out about from socialising with their peers or from dubious reading stuff. They were keenly interested in sexual relations, pregnancy prevention, and protection from sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, as well as adolescent psychology and physiology.

As of today, approximately 1, 000 adolescent activists have received this training. They have all become active propagandists of a healthy lifestyle and reproductive health in the youth environment. They are distributing RFPA information material, which is specially intended for young people. And the number of young people wishing to participate in the project is growing with every passing day. Trainers maintain constant contact with their young trainees and hold seminars, at which a lively exchange of opinions takes place among the youth leaders on sexual relations, and new activists are invited to attend. The RFPA has put out various souvenirs with the association’s and UNFPA’s logos to attract new members and encourage adolescent activity, including T-shirts, ballpens, calendars, and plastic bags, which serve as graphic advertising of a healthy lifestyle.

This form of training, entirely new for Russia, according to the adolescent to adolescent system has become a successful way for passing on knowledge about reproductive health, since it makes it possible to distribute important information among young people by involving them in the process themselves.

The most important thing is that adolescents have gained access to information which will allow them in the future to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases, HIV infections, unwanted pregnancy and abortion, and preserve their reproductive health. The RFPA has received many letters and responses to the project. And they all emphasise how necessary and timely this work is and how important it is that adolescents are participating in it. Apparently, the positive responses are a guarantee that the project will make it possible to reach an even larger number of young people in the future.