Tagged as: rhrn II

Uganda Celebrates 16 Days of Activism for Reproductive Health and Gender Violence

Uganda— The Director of Finance at Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU), Peter Mark Mutebi, has asked public and private organizations and other related players to take the fight against gender-based violence (GBV) outside workplaces and homes.

Presiding over the high-level stakeholder engagement in Hoima district by the RHU and partners Federation of Uganda Employers (FUE), Mutebi, said most of the GBV cases are happening in the homes, workplaces, and in countryside communities.

“Most of the cases that we do hear about are happening at work or in villages where women and girls are not empowered to report,” Mutebi said, adding that as “a young boy, I witnessed a lot of gender-based violence and bullying in my village.”

The Director of Finance also asked public and private sector players to refocus, find, and stop the drivers of gender-based violence.

“In rural areas mainly, I think it’s due to low levels of education, poverty, alcohol, and primitive beliefs that a man is above a woman even when a woman is feeding a man,” he said, committing, together with religious, cultural, and political leaders, to continue deliberate action in supporting communities in their campaign to end violence towards girls, boys, men, and women.

Sheik Musa Mabanja Atwooki, Hoima District Khadi, said religious leaders realized developments in creating an enabling environment for eliminating GBV through preaching and advocating for the enactment of laws such as the Domestic Act 2010, the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act 2009, the Penal Code Act Cap 120, and the FGM Act 2010, among others.

He added: “We want to ensure that we preach and advocate decision-makers to pass laws and policies and ensure that they are fully implemented.”Parliament established the Post Legislative Scrutiny Committee to ensure that the laws passed are implemented while also identifying gaps that need to be filled.

Approximately 650,000 teenage pregnancies were recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Figures from UNFPA show that since March 2020, when COVID-19 hit the world, an estimated 354,736 teenage pregnancies have been reported following the closure of all schools in the country for at least eight months.

An additional 290,219 pregnancies were reported between January and September 2021.

The above figures were highlighted during the 2022 commemoration of the 16 days of activism in Kampala, Bukwo, Isingiro, Rakai, and Hoima districts.

RHU did the activities in partnership with the Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development (MGLSD), district local governments (DLGs), and under projects like PROMISE II, Power to Youth (PYT), Advance Family Planning (AFP), and Right Here, Right Now II.

Ruth Mwangangi, Chairperson of FUE, believes “there is no production when employees are sick or are abused at work.” we don’t need to marginalize them if we need good productivity,” and added that “I commit on behalf of this institution to ensuring that issues of gender-based violence, maternal rights, and sexual reproductive rights and services are incorporated in the 2023-2024 national budget by private employers.”

Gender-based violence, according to Kiiza Beatrice of Bugambe Tea, affects not only individual victims but also the development of the country’s workforce:

“so many are suffering from sexual harassment; please reach out and organizations put up anti-violence policies.”

Francis Eyilu, Hoima Sugar’s Human Resources Manager, thanked RHU, saying, “We partner with FUE and RHU to put in place policies to curb violence and harassment at work.” “Safety tools are important, but so are health safety tools too.”

Bwendero Darius Bainomugisha, Peer Educator: “We sensitize people about HIV/AIDS at workplaces.”

Joyce Katwesige, Miss Y+ Western Uganda, called for Ugandans to turn on the voices of marginalized people and advocate for their rights.

Violence against girls, boys, and women has recently taken new, more sophisticated forms. An increasing number of them are, for instance, reporting cyberbullying and abuse through social media and smartphones.

Nuliyati Nabiwande, Principal Labour Officer MGLSD said Gender Based Violence affects not only the individual victims but also the development of the country.

“To address Gender-Based Violence, we need to lay back and tackle the root causes of gender inequality. If we don’t address the root cause of violence, our efforts to eliminate it will be significantly less effective, the Principal Labor Officer said.

She also wants the Parliament and district local governments to advocate for and advertise shelters where women and girls facing violence can take refuge as they seek justice.

RHU put on the orange color and created “orange” virtual spaces, and communication methods e.g., drama by Tunaca Troupe, websites, social media accounts, etc., on November 25, 2022, and throughout the next 16 days until December 10, 2022.

The author Aldon Walukamba is the Media Advocacy and Documentation Coordinator at Reproductive Health Uganda

Girls fleeing from FGM in Uganda are directed to Safety

Uganda, Kampala – “With no safe houses- schools, girls will be genitally mutilated,” said 21- year old Ruth Chelangat a community mobiliser, who mobilizes girls against female genital mutilation (FGM) in Kwosir sub county in Kween district of Uganda’s largely rural Sebei region.

“You can’t receive protection in the neighborhood during the cutting season,” she stated.

In areas of Uganda where FGM is performed, the “cutting season” usually coincides with school holidays, as it is this year. FGM, which includes damaging or modifying the female genitalia for non-medical reasons, can have a variety of severe health repercussions for girls who are exposed to it, including pain, infections, hemorrhaging, and death.

But when Betty Cheboi, was 22 years old, she implored her parents not to have her cut. They didn’t listen, and she had no safe place to run to. She nearly bled to death from her wounds.

Afterwards, she made her close relatives promise not to cut her younger sisters. For Cheboi, it was the beginning of a lifetime of activism to end FGM.

After receiving training from the Right Here, Right Now II (RHRN II) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), several youth teams in the Karamoja and Sebei regions are spreading the word that girls can find refuge at the safe houses operated in Amudat and Kween districts through, school programs, young people’s safe spaces at health centers, and community outreach.

“this is part of our effort to change negative values, norms and rituals abusing the enjoyment of sexual reproductive health and rights, in addition to young people’s gender justice,” Cheboi said.

However, according to Joseph Cheptegei, Kwosir sub-county Community Development Officer, when a cry for aid comes in, whether from a girl at risk or a concerned community member, identifying the girl can be difficult. This is due to the geography in the Sebei area, extensive unmapped land in Karamoja, and a lack of connectivity, with settlements of up to 5,000 people without plots and never appearing on Google maps.

“We are coming together to widen our network to unite people against FGM from across the Karamoja and Sebei regions,” said Cheptegei.

RHRN II, UNFPA through Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU), has organized the volunteer network’s efforts to teach young people so that activists on the ground can better protect girls since 2016.

Samuel Musani, RHRN II officer in Sebei region says that trained volunteer mobilisers, peer educators and young advocates comb through villages of rural Sebei and Karamoja regions, tracing for girls at risk or threat of FGM. They are then referred to safe houses and schools constructed by Action Aid – Uganda, Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development (MGLSD).

RHU works with government and other private partners like Reach a Hand Uganda (RAHU), Action Aid and Kapchorwa Civil Society Association.

During the 2021, over 2,000 volunteers in over 60 sub counties were trained under the RHRN II and UNFPA programmes by RHU and its partners.

As more and more communities abandon FGM, programming needs to zero in on remaining hotspots, noted Jackson Chekweko, RHU Executive Director.

When the cutting season is complete, most girls return home after two months. Volunteers, community social welfare personnel, and specially trained police engage with families and communities to alter attitudes, a step toward changing the societal norms that maintain FGM.

“We talk to parents,” said Chebot. “We show them that FGM has effects and is illegal in Uganda.”

Girls can return home if their parents promise to honor their requests not to be cut off and to help them in continuing their education. Every three months, the program does a check-in with the girls.

Girls whose families refuse to reconcile are housed in safe houses, where they get therapy and continue their education. Chebot, on the other hand, does not give up attempting to persuade their families to alter their beliefs.

“We are not stopping,” she said. “We keep visiting those families, talking to them so we can have reconciliation.”

While officiating the anti FGM day celebrations in Kapchorwa, on 20th April 2022, Uganda’s State Minister for Gender and Culture Peace Regis Mutuuzo, pledged that the 2010 anti FGM law will be revised to curb the new trends, that aid FGM to be done in countries neighboring Uganda.

Aldon Walukamba G, the author, is the RHU Media Advocacy and Documentation Coordinator.