The U.S. Agency for International Development recently awarded $15 million to Development Alternative Inc. (DAI) Global to set up the Youth-Powered Ecosystem to Advance Urban Adolescent Health and Wellbeing (YPE4AH) program. The program, which targets urban low-income adolescents between the ages of 15 – 19, seeks to improve their health and well-being by increasing the uptake of voluntary family planning and situating family planning within a more holistic context that enhances youth life skills for healthy living and future planning. The program also fosters an enabling social and policy environment for adolescent health and development and increases youth workforce readiness, job opportunities, and entrepreneurship to address socioeconomic determinants of adolescent health.

The operations of the DAI with respect to this project involved partnering with local organisations to create and strengthen a network of “youth hubs” in the capital cities of Lagos and Kano States. The hubs will in turn provide

A powerful story is hard to ignore. In fact, we’re biologically wired to respond to storytelling. But it’s important not to let a good story get in the way of good health decisions.

Consider three recent news stories about people with common symptoms, each of whom turned out to have a serious condition.

• A young mother has tried to ignore her headaches for months. She mentions them to a friend — a nurse — who convinces her to see her doctor. Soon, she has a CT scan and is discovered to have a brain tumor.
• A man who works long days at the airport as a baggage handler notices increasingly severe low back pain. He figures his pain is due to his work and treats it with a heating pad and ibuprofen. When the pain becomes so bad he begins to miss work, he sees his doctor, who orders