Welcome to the YAAR! project: Youth Against Antimicrobial Resistance

​The YAAR! Project brought together young people from four countries in the Global South - Kenya, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam - to help combat the challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) or drug-resistance infections

Here you can find out more about the project collaborators and see the innovative public health messages they created to raise awareness of AMR and the positive actions we can take to mitigate its threat. 

Central to the YAAR! project was collaboration with young people from four countries in the Global South: Kenya, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam. Throughout the project the youth collaborators were supported by a Youth Advisory Group with members from all four countries. These young people worked together with the YAAR! project team to do three things: 

  1. to identify and evaluate age-appropriate messages about AMR

  2. to identify effective platforms for engaging and empowering young people to act to mitigate the increasing global health risks that AMR brings.

  3. to develop short films, cartoons, and memes to promote appropriate antibiotic usage and understanding of AMR.

The multimedia outputs were shared on the project partners' social media platforms throughout World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) in November 2020. 

YAAR! was coordinated by a project team comprising senior engagement practitioners and researchers based in Wellcome Africa and Asia Programme centres: Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) in Vietnam and Nepal, Mahidol Oxford Research Unit (MORU) in Thailand and KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KEMRI) in Kenya. Additional technical inputs were provided by a team of scientific advisors. It was supported by Wellcome. 

The project also produced an AMR Learning Framework for Children and Young People, aimed at teachers, educators, research scientists, and informal learning providers. The framework identifies key learning outcomes appropriate to different age groups that are applicable across a diverse range of settings and learning environments. 

 

Read more about YAAR! Team here


Watch and read the outputs created by the young people here

AMR Learning Framework for children and young people

AMR is a growing concern for everyone. Solutions to this emerging challenge will require ideas and actions from a wide range of people and significant changes in the way we use antimicrobial medicines to treat infections. A good understanding of AMR, its causes, effects, and current strategies for mitigation is essential to enable people to engage meaningfully with the challenge and contribute to solutions.

The YAAR! team, in collaboration Wellcome’s Education team and the Drug-Resistant Infections team, have developed a progressive learning framework that is a resource for educators, health and research professionals to enable them to develop young peoples’ understanding of:

  • the science behind AMR

  • the individual, community, and global health risks AMR presents

  • the positive actions they can take to mitigate against AMR

The framework identifies key learning outcomes appropriate to different age groups that are applicable across a diverse range of settings and learning environments. It can be used as a tool for structuring curricula and learning activities. It is aimed at teachers, educators, research scientists, and informal learning providers.

The framework can be downloaded here. 

A concise AMR learning framework, which only outlines AMR-specific learning outcomes, is also available here.