Tagged as: SGBV

World Population Day 2023: “Unleashing the power of gender equality”

World Population Day 2023: Unleashing the power of gender equality: Uplifting the voices of women and girls to unlock our world’s infinite possibilities.

Women and girls make up 49.7% of the global population, yet they are often ignored in discussions on demographics, with their rights violated in population policies.

This pervasive injustice keeps women and girls out of school, the workforce and leadership positions; limits their agency and ability to make decisions about their health and sexual and reproductive lives; and heightens their vulnerability to violence, harmful practices and preventable maternal death, with a woman dying every two minutes due to pregnancy or childbirth.

We must advance gender equality to create a more just, resilient and sustainable world. The creativity, ingenuity, resources and power of women and girls are fundamental to addressing demographic and other challenges that threaten our future, including climate change and conflict.

When women and girls are empowered by societies to exert autonomy over their lives and bodies, they and their families thrive.

RHU – DFPA root for Community Mentorship to Fight Gender-Based Violence

Hoima communities have been empowered to identify and report cases of sexual and gender violence (SGBV), courtesy of Reproductive health Uganda (RHU) and the Danish Family Planning Association (DFPA).

Nancy Apiyo, RHU Gender Coordinator says that the Sexual Reproductive Health Rights and gender equality (SRHRGE) project trained 1,100 persons 80% women on issues of gender-based violence (GBV) and SGBV in Hoima District. The SRHRGE project changed and relaxed acts of dislike of, contempt for, and ingrained prejudice against women.

Apiyo, says that these acts devalue women, normalize their abuse, and perpetrators claim GBV is accidental, ignores sexism, promote aggressive masculinity, and use men’s achievements to exonerate, excuse, and deny the impact of their behavior. Therefore, women have also been empowered to stand up for their rights and report GBV and SGBV issues, penetrate leadership positions and also fend for their families.

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RHU Mentors Healthcare Providers in Management of Rape and SGBV Survivors

Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU) is equipping health care providers with the clinical management of rape, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) survivors.

Demeter Margret Namuyobo, RHU Medical Coordinator says after acquiring support from United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), RHU embarked on mentoring health service providers in the clinical management of rape and SGBV survivors in some regions of Uganda.

So far, the districts of Amudat, Abim, Kotido, Kampala and Moroto have benefited from the trainings, because of the urgent need for clinical skills among health care providers, cases of rape, sexual and gender-based violence.

This comes after increasing cases of rape and SGBV were reported from Karamoja, and central regions in 2020, following the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic. According to the Uganda Police Force 2020 crimes report the number of Sex Related Crimes in 2020 rose to 16,144 case compared to 15,638 cases reported in 2019.

Although these areas rank high in cases of rape, violence and defilement, they also practice female genital mutilation (FGM), which a form of gender violence.

Gimono Haddy, a Health care services provider at Loro health Centre II in Amudat district says the knowledge acquired from the RHU training funded by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), will help her serve the community, especially victims of rape and SGBV in Loro parish and the surrounding areas.

“I have acquired skills about how to communicate with rape and SGBV survivors, many of them fear to disclose to us upon coming to the health centre because in Amudat, sex is practiced culturally without consent. They fear to be punished by the elders in the kraals” Gimono says.

Catherine Asio, in charge of Alakas Health Centre II says the knowledge acquired from the RHU – UNFPA training will help her and the team handle swabs taken from survivors carefully before the 72 hours elapse, but also protect them from not getting spoilt.

“we face a challenge of handling virginal swabs taken from survivors of rape and SGBV, but after this training, we can use the specimen collection kit or refer the swabs immediately to the health Centre IV in time for storage” Asio says.

The trainings and other RHU – UNFPA funded activities are going on until December 2021.

Participants who attended the clinical management of rape and SGBV mentorship at Loro Health Centre II

Parliamentarians from Africa and Asia Commend RHU’s work

Parliamentarians from Africa and Asia have commended Reproductive Health Uganda’s (RHU) work in promoting sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR) services and Family Planning (FP).

While visiting RHU headquarters and Katego clinic, the parliamentarians were thrilled with RHU operations and promised to advocate a replica in Uganda and their home countries.

The purpose of the visit was to furnish the parliamentarians with what RHU has been does in reaching out to communities about sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR) services and Family Planning (FP). The parliamentarians from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, Chad, Liberia among others, applauded RHU and its management in executing out workable strategies in promoting SRHR and FP.

Jackson Chekweko, RHU Executive Director in his remarks welcomed the parliamentarians to Uganda and RHU. He communicated to the visitors that RHU provides services in the hardest to reach and underserved parts of Uganda.

“We offer SRHR services in 29 districts of Uganda through 768 service points, 17 static clinics, 74 mobile facilities, 35 associated clinics and a network of hundreds of community-based organizations” Chekweko said.

The RHU Executive Director, also informed the parliamentarians, that over 1.5 million young people, women and men in Uganda are direct beneficiaries of RHU services per annum. This is achieved through the various service delivery and points located all over the country. He also said that RHU has a long standing experience of providing integrated comprehensive SRHR services and has championed the role of sexuality education in the country.

He however reiterated that in Uganda, “SRHR is not considered as an essential service which even worsened during the COVID19 pandemic crisis” Chekweko said.

Dr. Peter Ibembe, RHU Director of Programs communicated about the ICPD25 journey to the parliamentarians. He said that the Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) like RHU are making strides in complementing government programs.

“In 2019 RHU while working with the National Population Council (NPC) mobilized CSOs to organize the pre ICPD25 symposium. Through this symposium a position paper was developed and commitments made” Dr. Ibembe said.

Dr Ibembe, said that amidst the COVID19 pandemic, RHU has so far provided 7.2 million integrated SRHR services, which include family planning, HIC prevention, care and treatment, breast and cervical cancer screening, sexually transmitted infections management etc. to more than 1.2 million people.

The young SRHR volunteers were also represented by Daisy Kandole, and Brian Ssekajja, SRHR advocates and volunteers at RHU.

Daisy Kandole, disclosed that RHU has empowered her as a young person to know her rights to reproductive health and also become an advocate of Sexual Reproductive Health.

“ the different youth friendly services and programmes that RHU offers, to many young people like her have been empowered and can make better choices regarding their sexual reproductive health rights” Kandole said.

On the other hand Brian Ssekaja, mentioned that RHU offers him a platform to advocate for reproductive health services to young people. He says that through his voulunteering work and services at RHU, he has been able to tlk to young people in schools and so extending SRHR information to them. He adds that COVID19 has affected most of te work young people have been doing through RHU because schools have been closed and most young people are at home.

Esther Chandiru, is  a female sex worker from Bwaise, in Kampala – Uganda. She said that she was reffered to RHU clinic Bwaise by a friend of hers.

Esther, commends RHU for the many times she has visited the Bwaise clinic, she has been charged fairly and sometimes offered free outreach services, unlike at other health centers charge a lot of money.

There after Jackson Chekweko, RHU ED presented some challenges faced by RHU to the parliamentarians.

“COVID19 has hit the organization so hard. Some of the development partners that have been supporting RHU have also stopped because they also have their own financial problems caused by the COVID19 pandemic. We need to engage some of these partners like the UK government that have cut funding to some of the ongoing projects. He challenged the different MPs to play a role in advocating for health funds and grunts to developing countries like Uganda” Chekweko said.

He also disclosed that there are limited resources allocated to reproductive health. The resources are not enough to serve the growing population in the country.

In his closing remarks the leader of the delegation Hon. Constantino from Tanzania commended RHU for the work they do to extend sexual reproductive health rights especially to young people and marginalized communities.

Hon. Constantino also presented a gift to RHU through the executive director from the entire delegation.

Centre – RHU ED Jackson Chekweko with Parliamentarians from Africa and Asia at RHU Headquarters

Leaders Fear Less Girls May Return to School after 42 Days Lockdown

Against this background, RHU  is partnering with the district administration to implement the Advanced Family Planning (AFP) Initiative, to curb Violence against Women and Girls and promoting Family Planning in the district.

Leaders Fear Less Girls May Return to School after Lockdown (more…)