Youth leader advocating for SRHR and information to young people in schools.
Naguru teenage Centre a pioneer adolescent health program in Uganda established to provide youth friendly ASRHR services and information, primarily targeting the young people 10-24 years old is working with peer educators and youth leaders in the various districts to reach its vision of empowering the young people on their sexual reproductive health and rights.
The youth leaders including those politically elected and the ones heading various groups of young people in the community has made it easier for Naguru Teenage Centre access the groups of the young people targeted to benefit from its services in the districts of operation.
Due to the involvement of the youth leaders in the areas of operation, Naguru teenage Centre has managed to reach to many young people in the regions in west Nile, Busoga, karamoja, Sebei and Acholi and the impact of Naguru Teenage Centre’s presence in those regions has been felt and the feedbacks were all positive and these has been seen through the success stories got from the beneficiaries.
During one of the visits to some of the schools, Mundruyo Patricia a 23 year old youth leader in Aluru sub-county, Moyo district delivered SRHR session to the young people in Moyo boys primary school and Logoba Seed secondary school. During her sessions with the students, she identified SRHR challenges such as rape, substance and drug abuse, unwanted pregnancies and attributed the issues to limited SRHR/SGBV information among the students; exposure to social media, no fence at school and power at the dormitory as driving factors.
To address these challenges, she has taken action by engaging the school administration and sub-county leadership to organize parents and students meetings at school, community dialogue to create awareness on SRHR/SGBV and advocated for the fencing of the school and improve on the lighting systems on the school compound to reduce risks of SGBV.
As a recommendation, the youth leader urged Naguru teenage Centre to continue with providing the ASRHR and information to the young people to the various locations since some the areas in the district have not been reached and the issues of teenage pregnancy and school dropout are still on the rise as well as the knowledge about menstrual hygiene and management has been limited and so encouraged that there is need to do awareness about MHM and also training the young people in the remote areas on how to make reusable sanitary pads that will sustain them to remain in school during their menstruation has limiting the rate of school dropouts.
Conclusively, she as well urged Naguru Teenage Centre to help and provide reporting path ways to help the young people report issues about SGBV and also share their issues especially about ASRHR and information cutting across communications, behavioral changes and advocacy.
