Social services and influence on youth health in Dandora
International Youth Day: What do beauty skills and youth agency have to do with healthcare?
On Wednesday this week, the world marked the International Youth Day. In Kenya, 46 per cent of the population (21.9 million) is under the age of 18. Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city of over 2 million people has more than half its population living in low-income settlements where social services and economic exclusion is common, with heightened environmental health risks and reinforced negative perceptions of the area. Dandora, one of these informal settlements, is a neighbourhood in Nairobi’s Eastlands area that has long faced environmental and social challenges associated with hosting the city’s largest landfill.
Young people in Dandora are active participants in their own health and well-being, not just recipients of care. Through the Dandora Youth Friendly Centre, they have a safe space to express their needs, share feedback, access mentorship, and develop skills that help them make informed decisions about their health and future. Social activities and peer engagement help build trust, strengthen connections with healthcare services, and ensure that services reflect the realities and priorities of young people.
Adolescents and youth are especially impacted, facing limited access to health services, socio-economic hardships with high unemployment, urban violence and heightened risks of sexual and gender-based violence- factors that affect their mental health and well-being.
To improve access to youth friendly services for youth aged 10-24yrs and key population directly within the community, for 5 years, MSF has been offering youth-friendly services in Dandora 2 Health Center, a public health facility and in medical outreach clinics. The youth-centered and adapted activities have been designed together with the Dandora youth, key stakeholders in the community, and with the MoH, and are run in participation with the youth.
Through the youth clinic and medical outreach clinics, youth receive medical services such as sexual reproductive health, managing sexually transmitted infections, contraception, pregnancy testing, antenatal-care for teenage expectant mothers, HIV testing and prevention services with linkage to care, SGBV, HPV vaccination, general consultations, mental health-psychosocial counselling and referral.
The Dandora Youth Friendly Centre demonstrates the value of a holistic model of care that combines healthcare with social support, mentorship, and skills development. Services have been tailored to respond to the specific health needs of young people aged 10–24 and other marginalised groups, who often face additional barriers to accessing care. By placing young people at the centre of service design and delivery, the model addresses their health needs alongside the social factors that influence their well-being, from sexual and reproductive health and mental health support to education, life skills, and personal development.
To improve uptake of medical services, youth are actively engaged through social services and activities, creating space for dialogue, feedback, and inclusion in designing and delivering services. These social services are delivered in the clinic’s resource centre and include mentorship, life skills and educational sessions, trainings on income generation activities, health education and outreach activities. The clinic also hosts targeted activity days for vulnerable groups such as domestic workers, persons with disabilities, and people living on the streets- in collaboration with partners, including MoH community health volunteers.
The DYFC experience shows that meaningful youth participation and a holistic approach can help create more accessible, inclusive, and responsive healthcare services for adolescents, young people, and other marginalised groups. By combining medical care with social support and involving young people in shaping services, this model offers lessons for the Kenya Ministry of Health, partners, and other MSF projects seeking to strengthen youth-friendly approaches adapted to their own contexts.
John Riaga