September 26, 2017—World Contraception Day
Ivonne Miranda, M.A. in Psychology, alumna of GOJoven International and Co-founder and Trainer at the GOJoven Honduras Association since 2014, was selected for the 120 Under 40 Award: The New Generation of Family Planning Leaders, an initiative sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This global award recognizes and highlights Ivonne’s achievements as one of the next generation of family planning leaders worldwide.
Ivonne Miranda, a young Garifuna woman who was 25 when she became a GOJoven Fellow in 2009, is an active member of GOJoven Honduras, currently sitting on their Fiscal Oversight Committee and serving as Lead Trainer for the organization’s new youth platform in the department of Colon, on Honduras’ northern Caribbean coast. In leading the youth platform, Ivonne is building a cohort of 20 young sexual and reproductive health and rights leaders, ages 15-27, primarily mestizo, indigenous and Garifuna ethnicities, to spearhead local efforts that increase access to contraceptives and reduce the high rates of adolescent pregnancy in their municipalities. Previously, Ivonne worked for nearly 6 years in a comprehensive adolescent clinic at the Salvador Paredes Hospital in Trujillo, Honduras, providing contraception and HIV/AIDS counseling and explaining the correct use of contraceptive methods in a youth-friendly manner. Check out Ivonne’s 120 Under 40 nomination to learn more about what inspires and motivates her as a family planning leader and see photos of her in the field.
The 40 winners for 2017 were chosen through public online voting, scoring by a jury of experts and leaders in family planning, and the project secretariat. Each of the final 40 will receive $1,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health to continue their work in family planning and/or begin innovative new projects. GOJoven International is committed to supporting Ivonne in this new arena, including in the use of her seed fund award, which she aspires to invest in expanding access to contraceptive information and services for youth and adolescents in particularly hard-to-reach areas of Colón, Honduras.
The process took place for the first time in 2016, during which the Director of PHI’s Rise Up Program, Denise Dunning, was selected as 1 of the first 40 champions; 2017 is the second round; and 2019 is the final round. By 2020, 120 outstanding young family planning champions under 40 will be assembled – the year by which the Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) partnership aims to enable 120 million additional women and girls to access life-saving contraceptives and other reproductive health supplies.
“This second group of winners is as outstanding as the first,” says Jose “Oying” Rimon II, Director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health and Chair of the 120 Under 40 Jury. “These young leaders are creating positive disruptions all over the world, and their impact will only grow stronger as they forge a new network with their fellow 120 Under 40 winners.”