The University of Nairobi has reported a reach of 56,000 students in its efforts to implement the (O3 Plus) project pilot phase from October 2021 to December 2021 while Mount Kenya University reached 10,000 students. This was revealed during a 4-day planning workshop that started on Monday, January 24th, 2022 at the Masada Hotel, Naivasha.
“The objective of this workshop is Institutional strengthening in sustainability, student health and well-being, safe and inclusive campus environment and evidence-building and knowledge-sharing platform.,” announced the UNESCO project coordinator, Ms Jane Kamau.
While delivering her open remarks, Ms Kamau acknowledged the efforts made by the partner institutions in planning, implementing and even analysing the reports from the O3plus project. She urged the institutions to increase the level of activities that will increase students’ engagement, review policies and bring about curriculum change.
On his part, Prof. Stephen Kiama, the Vice Chancellor, UoN, applauded the stakeholders of the (O3 Plus) Project citing that a lot of work has gone into it.
‘This is the only project that has approached university students’ well-being from a caring perspective. He said that O3plus is playing a huge role in the sexual and reproduction health education; a gap that has been left open by the Kenyan education system.
Prof. Kiama challenged the stakeholders to take up the objective of decreasing the number of students dropping out of university or who take so many years to complete their degrees.
The overall goal of the UNESCO’s O3 Plus project is to ensure that young people in higher and tertiary education institutions in the Eastern and Southern Africa realize positive health, education and gender equality outcomes through sustained reductions in new HIV infections, unintended pregnancy and gender based violence. The project being implemented in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe aims at enabling young people to reach their full educational potential and contribute more effectively to the development of their countries and region as graduates, professionals and young leaders.
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