May 30, 2019 – Last month, the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) conducted an educational campaign focusing on sexual and reproductive health at three primary and three secondary schools in and around the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement. The initiative was widely successful: during its four weeks, it reached 580 young people.
This program is part of our efforts to bring peace and sustainable development to Northern Uganda, where lack of knowledge amongst youths about sexual and reproductive healthcare issues has real repercussions on entire communities. In fact, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the national teenage pregnancy rate is 24%, with it even reaching 34% in some rural areas. Further, approximately 35% of girls drop out of school due to early marriages and 23% drop out due to early pregnancy. Extreme poverty, harassment, and threats of sexual violence prevent even more girls from attending school.
These are prevalent issues that WPDI addresses through education, aiming to build a culture of empowerment and autonomy for girls and young women. We work to establish or strengthen existing sexual and reproductive health clubs in primary and secondary schools in Northern Uganda to educate youths so that they stay in school and live healthy, productive lives. We are also providing educational resources to school teachers and administrators so that they can effectively counsel and guide students as they make life choices, as well as in promoting the sexual and reproductive health of their students.
Local community members have found the campaign to be very helpful. Charity, a 17-year-old girl from Gaspa village and an orphan, told us that before she attended a session on sexual and reproductive health, she thought she had “no option but to stay at home and wait for someone who can marry me and start a family.” But, “the session opened my eyes and was good for my future career. Ever since I was young, I have wanted to become a health worker. The session persuaded me to put aside the idea of marriage for now and concentrate on my education.” Beatrice had a similar experience. She told us that, before she attended one of our educational sessions on family planning, she “believed so many myths and misconceptions surrounding family planning services like ‘family planning methods can cause cancer’ and ‘family planning won’t let me ever have children’”.” Now, she is “free from all the fears about using family planning” and ended up opting to receive an intrauterine device (IUD).
In the coming weeks and months, WPDI staff and youth peacemakers will continue the educational campaign at the six primary and secondary schools. In fact, teachers and administrators have requested that they conduct weekly visits and continue to support their efforts to better the sexual and reproductive health of hundreds of students in Kiryandongo.