Women call for youth friendly-reproductive health services

By Juliet Nalwooga

Rights activists under the Uganda Women Network (UWONET) have urged the government to re-package and market sexuality education to increase uptake ahead of the general schools’ re-opening next year in January.

The government recently released a policy to guide all stakeholders in teaching sexuality education in institutions of learning after it rejected a Comprehensive Sexuality Education concept which allegedly targeted schools as recruitment grounds for homosexuality and claimed that it undermined the country’s values.

Speaking at the ongoing strategizing forum on how best to implement international legislative frameworks on gender accountability, Suzan Acheng, an Advocacy officer from UWONET also noted that the 11th parliament should enact the National Health Insurance Bill to provide health care for the majority of women and children who are the most vulnerable.

This comes at the backdrop of rising cases of teenage pregnancies indicating that the country may be facing an ‘epidemic’ of teenage pregnancy blamed on the Covid -19 induced lockdowns that had children marooned at home away from school for months.

7 days are currently left on the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, an annual international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls that starts on November 25th till December 10th.

Written by Noelyn Nassuuna