Jashpurnagar . Under the direction of Collector Rohit Vyas and Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr. G.S. Jatra, a six-day peer educator training program was started in the district's development block Manora from January 21 under the National Adolescent Health Program.

The primary objective of Peer Educator Training is to develop the immense potential of working with adolescents aged 10 to 19 years and to develop their capacity to make informed and responsible decisions regarding their health and well-being. Peer Educators are adolescents selected from the community who guide and assist other adolescents in coping with the many challenges of their developmental stage and in making the best possible use of available opportunities.

Training Under the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram, various services are made available to adolescents through government hospitals-dispensaries and frontline health workers available in the community. The program provides positive thinking to adolescents and skills to solve the health problems of adolescents. Under this program, through peer educator training, adolescents and adolescents are trained in six important areas like nutrition, sexual health, non-communicable diseases, drug abuse, injury, violence, mental health etc. and appropriate education and awareness is spread by intervening in the above issues in the community.

A total of 40 participants, including 32 students (school entrants and school dropouts) and 8 Mitanins, are being trained under the Peer Educator Training Program. Participants were provided with backpacks, T-shirts, and caps as incentives. Following training, Peer Educators will work with frontline health workers and others to organize Adolescent Health Days in their villages once every three months. The goal of Adolescent Health Days is to raise awareness among adolescents about nutrition, mental health, personal hygiene, and the dangers of child marriage. The training team, along with the program's nodal officer, Dr. Arvind Ratre, Nidhi Singh, Anand Lakra, and Karishma Chauhan, played a key role in the successful conduct of the training.