Youth-led self-care for mental health, sexual and reproductive health in Myanmar

We’re co-designing and testing a new model of care for young people in Myanmar. 

Our model of care: 

• covers mental health, sexual health and reproductive health 

• is designed together with young people aged 16 to 24 years old 

• is youth-led and community-supported. 

Supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP), we're trialling this model in Yangon and Magway in Myanmar. 

Almost 1 in 6 people in Myanmar are 15 to 24 years old. Many of these young people face significant barriers to accessing care, which is affecting their health. 

For example: 

• 1 in 8 sexually active young people report sexually transmissible infections (STIs) 

• 5% of young women begin childbearing before age 18 

• 1 in 10 adolescent pregnancies are unintended. 

Our assessment in 2023 also found that 29% of people aged 16 to 24 years old in our target areas have mental health disorders, with limited access to care and support. 

Through this project, we aim to support sustainable and resilient youth-led self-care in Myanmar. 

To do that, we're: 

• supporting young people to promote, manage and maintain their health 

• strengthening non-government primary healthcare systems 

• strengthening community support systems. 

Working with young people, we’ve developed a model of care that supports mental health and sexual and reproductive health. 

The models include: 

• mental health self-care activities 

• interventions to help young people access and use sexual health products 

• support for young people to access care and health services. 

We aim to make our model: 

• comprehensive, so that it integrates different kinds of care 

• replicable, so it can be adapted and reused in different places. 

2025 

In the first year of this project, we conducted early assessments that led to a series of workshops in our project areas. During the workshops, we co-designed a set of self-care interventions that address sexual, reproductive and mental health for young people in Myanmar. 

To develop this model, we worked with: 

• young people 

• parents 

• service providers 

• health services 

• safe space providers 

• peer networks. 

2026–2029 

From 2026 to 2029, we're piloting our model of care in 4 locations in Myanmar: 

• Dagon Myothit (South) 

• Dagon Myothit (East) 

• Dagon Myothit (Seikkan) 

• Magway.