Here’s how volunteering ushered me to a world of opportunities

Marie-Claire Wangari is a 27-year-old doctor who has been in the global health advocacy space since 2014.
Wangari was not one of those students who passed their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education with flying colours.
In fact, her final grade (B+) was the second-highest she ever attained in high school, but she was able to attend the University of Nairobi as a parallel-sponsored student through the support of her family.
According to her, most of her achievements in life are as a result of her passion for voluntary services.
When she joined the university, she was elected as the class representative, a position she held until her sixth and final year.
Through this, her passion for voluntary service grew and she gained exposure to other leadership opportunities, ending up being involved in running a number of  youth-led volunteer initiatives.

Empowering others

“Although I’m still practising medicine, I find my biggest satisfaction in empowering others,” Wangari says.
She has since served at national, regional and global level as a volunteer at the Medical Students Associations of Kenya, the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), among other organisations.
In 2015, she, together with a Danish organisation — International Medical Cooperation Committee — co-founded Reproductive and Sexual Health Program for Kenyan Teenagers (Respekt).
Respekt is a social youth programme that seeks to inspire change and positively impact the lives of young people. Their aim was to attain universal access to adolescent and youth Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR).
 “Our core mandate is educating and enabling the youth to access information and services centred on sexual reproductive health and its attendant rights. We are guided by a programme curated by our curriculum development team,” she adds.
The volunteers coordinate activities touching on SRHR education in schools, as well as conducting workshops and research.
Some of their achievements  are the creation of a reproductive health training manual and engaging with guidance and counselling teachers to create safe spaces for SRHR education.
The programme is run by 140 volunteers based in Denmark and Kenya and has successfully reached about 8,350 teenagers from Kisumu, Eldoret, Nairobi, Meru, Nakuru, Kiambu, and Murang’a counties. 
The journey has, however, not been smooth.
“The biggest problem we face is stigma when addressing matters SRHR among the youth because it’s treated with lots of secrecy,  while its consequences are very public and affect everyone in the community,” she adds.
The consequences are teenage pregnancies, maternal mortality and early childhood marriages.
The volunteer doctor noted that most people equate comprehensive sexuality education with promoting promiscuity amongst adolescents and youth.
“On the contrary, the youth actually have the information nowadays with the rising use of gadgets and evolution in technology and many at times, it leads to misinformation,” says Wangari.
On March 4, 2022, Wangari was announced as the winner in the category of Young Achievers by Zuri Foundation in the annual award ceremony.
She has also been recognised by  African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref)  Youth in Action in 2019 for her advocacy efforts in ensuring youth and adolescents are represented in policy decision-making processes in Kenya.

Positive change

“I was also among the inaugural recipients of the Change-maker scholarship: from the Alliance for health policy and systems research at the World Health Organisation, besides being invited to attend the 72nd World Health Assembly in May 2019 due to my potential to effect profound positive change in healthcare,” she added.
As an organisation, Respekt has al received other honours such as the Global Empowerment award at the December 2020 Roundtable Global Youth Awards.
This is in addition to being recognised by the National Gender Equality Commission - Kenya in August 2021 for their contribution in promoting gender equality and social inclusion.
Other recognitions include an award as the best project in IFMSA,  Africa region in 2018.
Wangari  hopes to see the organisation spread to the rest of the counties as one of her short-term goals.
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